THE CRITIQUE OF CLASSICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY IN FOUCAULT’S ANALYTICS OF POWER AND GOVERNMENT

Abstract

Foucault’s interest in classical political economy cannot be understood as part of the typical studies of the history of economic ideas presenting economic thoughts chronologically around their scientific structures, arguments and methods. Instead, Foucault aims to show how classical political economy played a major and critical role in the formation of modern power and governmental rationality and apparatuses after the 1750s. Foucault’s comprehensive and unconventional historical analysis of power and government promises to understand classical political economy as part of the problem of politics in the past and present. This paper reveals that Foucault’s history and analytics of power and government has also strong potential to innovatively approach the long-debated and thorny issues in the history of economic thought such as The Adam Smith Problem and open up new ways to interpret the place of key figures and theories in liberal governmentality such as Ricardo’s political economy

Keywords

• Foucault, Classical Political Economy, Governmentality, Power

Foucault’nun İktidar ve Yönetim Analitiğinde Klasik Politik İktisat Eleştirisi

Öz

Foucault’nun klasik politik iktisada ilgisi iktisadi düşünceleri teorilerin bilimsel yapıları, argümanları ve yöntemleri bağlamında kronolojik biçimde açıklayan tipik iktisadi düşünceler tarihi araştırmalarının bir parçası olarak anlaşılamaz. Bunu yerine, Foucault 1750’lerden sonra klasik politik iktisadın modern iktidar ve yönetimsel rasyonalitesinin ve araçlarının oluşumunda nasıl esaslı ve kritik bir rol oynadığını göstermeyi amaçlamıştır. Foucault’nun iktidar ve yönetim üzerine kapsamlı ve sıra dışı tarihsel analizi klasik politik iktisadı şimdi ve geçmişte siyasetin bir parçası olarak anlaşılmasına olanak tanıyor. Bu yazı ayrıca Foucault’nun iktidar ve yönetim analitiğinin ve tarihinin Adam Smith Problemi gibi iktisadi düşünce tarihinde uzunca tartışma konusu olmuş zorlu konulara farklı bir şekilde yaklaşılması yolunda ve David Ricardo’nun politik iktisadı gibi liberal yönetimsellik için önemli isimleri ve teorileri yorumlamada yeni yollar açma potansiyeli olduğunu gösteriyor

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Foucault, Klasik Politik İktisat, Yönetimsellik, İktidar

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