Le biopouvoir chez Foucault et Agamben

Abstract

According to Foucault, a transformation in the way of exerting power can be discerned from the 18th century onwards, as life becomes a topic of concern for power itself. « Biopower » is the term he uses to describe the new tactics of power when it focuses on life, that is to say individual bodies and populations; when such mechanisms differ from those that exert their influence in the legal and political sphere of sovereign power. In Homo sacer, Agamben takes up Foucault’s analysis and brings it into play on the very terrain that the latter wanted to break with, namely the field of sovereignty. He argues that sovereign power is not linked to rightholders, but is covertly linked to a «bare life», which is life included in the political realm by a paradoxical exclusion, exposed to the violence and the decision of sovereign power. It is consequently interesting to examine how Agamben shifts the emphasis from Foucault’s standpoint and the difficult relationship between sovereign power and biopowers, in order to assess the relevance and fruitfulness afforded by the notion of biopower.

Keywords

• biopower
• death
• life
• Power
• sovereignty
• Agamben