BIOPOLITICS AND SOVEREIGNTY IN FOUCAULT AND AGAMBEN: RELATIONS BETWEEN PUNITIVE SOCIETY AND HOMO SACER

Abstract

The nexus between biopolitics and sovereignty is of central importance in Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, who have a distinct but complementary understanding of such concepts. The relationship between these ideas in the light of the 50 years since publication of The Punitive Society is addressed in some of its points of contact, distance and complementarity. The interactions between sovereign power and human life point to a necessary critical look at how governments have captured life as a manageable resource but also subject to inclusion and exclusion through sovereign power, in the figure of homo sacer.

Keywords: Foucault. Agamben. Biopolitics. Sovereignty. Punitive Society.