Liberalism as a Prerequisite for Biopolitics: the Concept of M. Foucault and Russian-Soviet Practice in the Context of the Theory of Political Alienation

Michel Foucault posed the problem of analyzing state interest (hereinafter referred to as GI) and finding ways to limit it. To solve the problem, he formulated the starting premises: orthodoxy (in religion) and loyalty (in politics) are not the norms of religious and state life; the state is not a transhistorical phenomenon, and its interests are not supra-individual; therefore, revolutions (and not stability) are the norm of state existence. In order to substantiate these premises, Foucault developed cognitive means: the denial of universals and the formulation of the problem of possible history; nominalistic definition of GI; criticism of the current economic, military-diplomatic and police forms of implementation of the GI; fixing the contrast between the foreign and domestic policies of states; qualification of law, political economy and truth as ways to limit GI and necessary prerequisites for biopolitics. These also include liberalism. In the course of lectures “The Birth of Biopolitics,” Foucault considers liberalism as the basis of a new art of government. As part of this art, he discovered and analyzed a specific problem-conceptual structure: the relationship between moderate governance and the market; transition from jurisdiction to verification; mode of truth; the difference between government and state interests; the relationship between law and truth; political critique of knowledge; police state; ways to limit government power; concepts of law; modern state mind. The purpose of the article is to summarize Foucault’s conclusions about the main elements of this structure and pose the problem of their application to explaining the preconditions of Russian-Soviet biopolitics in the context of the theory of political alienation.