Contemporary Foucauldian research assimilates the political with governance. This formulation dates to Foucault's emphasis on the significance of the anti-Machiavellians in introducing the concept of governance into political theory. Returning to Machiavelli, we argue that early modern political theory was instead characterized by the simultaneous problematization of ruler and ruled, and the co-constitution of sovereignty and governance. We then outline the relation of ruler and ruled in the political structure of the democratic sovereign. Concepts of both sovereignty and governance are necessary to theorize the political in modernity, including the dangers that arise from fusing sovereignty and governance, as occurred during the Nazi period in Germany, when the distinction between the sovereign people and the governed population was conflated.
Agamben, Giorgio (1998) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
Agamben, Giorgio (2002) Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and he Archive, trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen. New York: Zone.
3.
Barret-Kriegel, Blandine (1995) The State and the Rule of Law, trans. Marc A. LePain and Jeffrey C. Cohen. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
4.
Bartelson, Jens (1995) A Genealogy of Sovereignty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Butler, Judith (2004) Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence . New York: Verso.
6.
Curtis, Bruce (2002) `Foucault on Governmentality and Population: The Impossible Discovery' , Canadian Journal of Sociology26(2): 257-72.
7.
Dean, Mitchell (1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society . London: SAGE.
8.
Dean, Mitchell (2001) `Demonic Societies', in Thomas Hansen and Finn Stepputat (eds) States of Imagination: Ethnographic Explorations of the Postcolonial State, pp. 41-64. Durham: Duke University Press.
9.
Dillon, Michael (1995) `Sovereignty and Governmentality: From the Problematics of the "New World Order" to the Ethical Problematic of the World Order' , Alternatives20(3): 323-68.
10.
Dillon, Michael (2004) `The Security of Governance', in Wendy Larner and William Walters (eds) Global Governmentality, pp. 76-94. London : Routledge.
11.
Dupont, D. and Pearce, F. (2001) `Foucault contra Foucault: Rereading the "Governmentality" Papers' , Theoretical Criminology5(2): 123-58.
12.
Foucault, Michel (1976) L'Histoire de la sexualité. Vol. 1: La Volonté de savoir. Paris : Gallimard.
13.
Foucault, Michel (1978) The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Pantheon.
14.
Foucault, Michel (1979) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. A. Sheridan. New York: Vintage .
15.
Foucault, Michel (1988) Résumé de cours. Paris: Julliard.
16.
Foucault, Michel (1997) `Governmentality', in J. B. Faubion (ed.) Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, Vol. 3: Power, pp. 201-22. New York: The New Press.
17.
Foucault, Michel (2002[1966]) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. London and New York: Routledge Classics.
18.
Foucault, Michel (2003[1997]) `Society Must Be Defended': Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976, trans. David Macey. New York: Picador.
19.
Foucault, Michel (2004) Sécurité, territoire, population: Cours au Collège de France, 1977-1978. Paris: Gallimard / Seuil .
20.
Hacking, Ian (1990) The Taming of Chance. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
21.
Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio (2000) Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
Lippert, Randy (1999) `Governing Refugees: The Relevance of Governmentality to Understanding the International Refugee Regime' , Alternatives24: 295-328.
23.
Mairet, Gérard (1978) `La génèse de l'État laique', in François Châtelet (ed.) Histoire des idéologies. Vol. 2. De l'Église à l'État du IXe au XVIIe siècle. Paris : Hachette.
24.
Peukert, Detlev (1987) Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
25.
Proctor, Robert (1988) Racial Hygiene: Medicine and the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
26.
Rose, Nikolas , O'Malley, Pat and Valverde, Mariana (2006) `Governmentality' , Annual Review of Law and Social Science2: 83-104.
27.
Singer, Brian C. J. (1986) Society, Theory and the French Revolution: Studies in the Revolutionary Imaginary. London: Macmillan.
28.
Singer, Brian C. J. (2004) `Intellectuals and Democracy: The Three Figures of Knowledge and Power' , CTHEORY [ http://www.ctheory.net/default.asp;Article:A147(12/1)].
29.
Singer, Brian C. J. and Weir, Lorna (2006) `Politics and Sovereign Power: Considerations on Foucault' , European Journal of Social Theory9(4): 443-65.
30.
Valverde, Mariana (2007) `Genealogies of European States: Foucauldian Reflections' , Economy and Society36(1): 159-77.
31.
Weindling, Paul (1988) `Fascism and Population in Comparative European Perspective' , Population and Development Review 14 (Supplement): 101-21.
32.
Weindling, Paul (1989) Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Weir, Lorna (forthcoming 2008) `The Concept of Truth Regime' , Canadian Journal of Sociology33(1).
