Coming to Terms with Foucauldianism: Emancipation or Anti-Politics?

Michel Foucault’s work is often seen as a guide for political action toward the emancipation of individuals and social groups. This article challenges a certain way of pursuing this project, referred to here as the ‘standard view’ of Foucault’s thought. At the heart of this view lies a theoretical core that is a-political, if not anti-political: the idea that the only ‘good’ form of political action is an act of resistance to any form of government. To analyse this view, I examine key responses to major criticisms of Foucault, notably determinism in subjectivation and relativism, and show that they fail to move beyond a framework that denies subjects political responsibility. I then examine the obstacles to a political reading of Foucault by contrasting the difficulties faced by liberal interpretations with the anti-system Foucault that dominates the standard view.