Foucault and ancient polizei: a genealogy of the military pastorate

Abstract

While Foucault claimed that biopower, as a form of political pastorate, did not exist in ancient Greece, he did take the view, following Hegel, that the ancient ‘ethical community’ [sittlichkeit] constituted a kind of ‘political technology of the individual’, an ancient form of ‘police’. In this paper, I trace Foucault’s conception of ‘police’ in his Tanner Lectures to Hegel’s analysis of politeia as the origin of the modern polizei. Through an examination of politeia in ancient political and military literature, I uncover a military–pastoral technology, founded on the relation not between shepherd–flock, but between leader [hegemon] and follower [epistatae]. I suggest two forms that a military–pastoral technology has taken shape, both in the politeia of the Spartans and in the early American Republic. This line of inquiry, I conclude, would not only suggest that a political pastorate existed in ancient Greece, but would also force us to re-consider modern forms of ‘police’ through the lens of a military–pastoral technology.

Keywords:

• Foucault
• police
• biopower
• pastoral power
• politeia

Notes

1. ‘The Lycurgus of the new Sparta, the oracle of politics as well as physics, would have the influence to assure me success.’ Letter to Benjamin Franklin from Barthélemy-Pélage Georgelin du Cosquer. ALS and American Philosophical Society. Paris, 11 June 1778.