LEGAL MITHOLOGIES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: GENEALOGICAL CRITIQUE OF THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC INTEREST

Abstract

This article carries out a genealogical critique of the Administrative State’s main founding myth: the concept of “public interest”. Considering Michel Foucault’s archeogenealogical method, it takes into account the historical development of the concept of public interest to demonstrate that, instead of providing a legal limitation of an uncontrollable Absolute State’s governmental action, it’s this very notion that justifies the theoretical and political building of a state capable of “doing things”, tautologically legitimating, in the name of the common good, its ruling over individuals’ and populations’ bodies.

Keywords

• biopolítica
• discurso
• interesse público
• relações de poder
• sociedade disciplinar.