Is a Communist Governmentality Possible?

Abstract

Michel Foucault’s texts in the 1970s, especially those on disciplinary power, have long been considered to represent a moment of dialogue with Marx. However, Foucault’s elaborations and research in the late 1970s and 1980s up until his death, presented mainly in the form of his lectures at the Collège de France, have often been presented as a different theoretical direction and as a move away from previous considerations, both political and theoretical. It has been suggested that they even represented a certain shift toward the emerging neoliberal discourse. In this article I will try to follow a different perspective not only to see the extent to which Foucault’s later work departs from his earlier positions and insights, but also to suggest that crucial notions from this phase of his work are relevant and important to any attempt to rethink a politics of social transformation and emancipation.