Abstract

The courses by Michel Foucault recently published invite us to approach the question of the State, and more generally that of politics, from the point of view of governing and “governmentality”. Through such concepts surfaces a constant methodological urge to approach things from the outside, to study multiplicities, “connexions with the heterogeneous”, historical configurations where disparate elements interact while remaining disparate. The same approach structures the understanding of this form of governmentality known as liberalism. In order to understand its nature, a long detour was needed into the realm of the Christian pastorate, and into the connection of the heterogeneous in politics that was thus brought about in the West