The Governance Mechanism of Population

Michel Foucault’s Concept of Security as a Model for Examining the Governance of Contemporary Society

Abstract

In contemporary society, there is a possibility of meeting people with various values due to globalization and the diversification of values. At the same time, our society has an aspect of increased uncertainty that accompanies respect for freedom and diversity. Michel Foucault’s security mechanism effectively captures this kind of governance in contemporary society. However, studies that refer to the security mechanism overlook the perspective that it governs the governing object, the population, based on a value called the normal value. Therefore, this study analyzes Foucault’ s security mechanism to construct a new perspective on governance in contemporary society.

The results of the analysis are as follows: First, the security mechanism stimulates the market economy by opening up space and facilitating free circulation. Furthermore, the security mechanism do not attempt to prevent the occurrence of various hazards associated with the opening of space, in advance. Second, it considers humans as a species and governs the population, which refers to a group of humans, based on their normal values.

Furthermore, the security mechanism is closely related to the governance mechanism that Foucault calls liberal governmentality. By analyzing the security mechanism from this perspective, we have shown that they govern society through mechanisms such as discipline.

This paper clarifies that the security mechanism can be presented as a governance mechanism based on the uncertainty associated with freedom, and that it has the perspective of capturing a society where values are diversified and actively distributed.