ISBN : 9782296545458
GOVERNING BODIES: SELF, POPULATION, GOVERNMENTALITY
The European modern state formation brought a revolutionary change in the conception of the selves that constitute the collective body of the state. Before what we can roughly call modernity, the relationship between the "state" and the "individual" was personal, corporeal, and contractual. The relationship between the king and his subjects was dependent upon personal or contractual loyalty under the auspices of the Lovejoyean "great chain of beings." In the modern conception of the state, such a relationship radically changes. The personal, corporeal, contractual relationships were severed, while the "individuals" irrevocably became the object of government. The citizens are not defined by their rela...