Description
This is for a political philosophy class:
Examine Michel Foucault's account of the rise of neoliberalism. In what sense does the neoliberal regime constitute for him a new form of "governmentality"? And assess Wendy Brown's claim that we are now beyond the period of neoliberalism. How does she set out to characterize that situation?
Explanation & Answer
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Running Head: MICHEL FOUCAULT AND WENDY BROWN ON NEOLIBERALISM
Michel Foucault and Wendy Brown on Neoliberalism
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MICHEL FOUCAULT AND WENDY BROWN ON NEOLIBERALISM
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Michel Foucault and Wendy Brown on Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is an economic and political system that focuses on having free market
trade, which has deregulation of financial markets and individualization by shifting control of
markets from state or public to the private sector. Under the notion as indicated by Flew (2015),
governments are reduced to having less control in the markets, and transfer of power and
regulations is taken over by the private companies. One of the proposers of Neoliberalism was
Michel Foucault, who in the first place had proposed liberalism. Liberalism according to
Foucault focused on the government having limited impact on how people lived their lives in
terms of schools, economy, justice system and sharing of national resources. He felt that when
government interfered, there was limited access to these factors for all since the government
gave the public what leaders in the government think is what the public needs but not in actuality
allowing the public to choose (Newheiser, 2016). According to him, he wanted a system where
the rich, who were in government, were not allowed to rule the economy. His focus was on how
the economy was built from history and using lessons from the past to build a better economy.
Therefore, his thoughts were with freedom of the public to do as they want without breaking the
law; by allowing people to choose would lead to better lives from the basis of education, health
care, sharing of national resources, and social sharing of wealth and justice system. From
Foucault’s translation, the government was left to run the issue of defense and what involved the
protection of the people without interfering with the choices people made from schools they went
to, political decisions they made, health care they wanted, and penal code that governed how
lawbreakers were dealt with in correctional facilities.
Consequently, neoliberalism rose from liberalism since it copies some of the ideology of
liberalism but has a current focus that allows newer ideas to be incorporated. From Foucault’s
MICHEL FOUCAULT AND WENDY BROWN ON NEOLIBERALISM
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point of view, it is a current economic mode in which the pri...
