Biopolitics Of Subject Formation

"Governmentality" is a key term in Foucault's theory of biopolitics.His research on capitalist governmentality has been throughout the biopolitics research process.It means that the research on biopolitics must first be based on the theoretical perspective of Foucault's governmentality research.However,there are few academics who have studied biopolitics from the perspective of capitalist governmentality.There are very few writings that analyze and care about the living conditions of contemporary people from this perspective.The original starting point of capitalist governmentality does not seem to get enough attention.Thus the article takes "research on capitalist governmentality" as the core topic,accompanying it is a contemporary analysis and interpretation on capitalist governmentality,to reveal that invisible micro the mechanisms of power discipline,control,shape and produce individual life in the modern capitalist society,further to clarify the true relationship between the capitalist governmentality and the subject.Foucault examined the power mechanism of Western capitalist society from the perspective of historical genealogy.There is a fundamental difference between the government model of the power mechanism and the domination model of the sovereign power of the former capitalist society.As far as the relationship between power and body is concerned,unlike monarch power punishes arbitrary the body until death,the capitalist power mechanism appears to improve the body.The improvement is reflected in two aspects.On one hand,it is mainly reflected in the 17 th century the western countries regulated and controlled individual bodies through a series of social norms,that is called disciplinary power.On the other hand,it is mainly reflected in the 18 th century the western countries' power governmentality strategy was upgraded to biopower from disciplinary power.Biopower regulates the population laissez-faire through mechanisms of security,making everyone happy to chase wealth.It stirs up everyone's freedom and produces that freedom every moment.From the discipline of the body to the regulation of the population,the capitalist strategy of improving life not only indicates the birth of the capitalist liberal governmentality,but also implies the formation of implicit interference and comprehensive control which capitalist power mechanism is made for the subject.Foucault not only fully revealed the historical uniqueness of capitalist governance,but also clarified biopolitics of contemporary subjects and the criticism of biopolitics.The general theme of Foucault's research on capitalist governmentality is not power,but the subject.The core issue of biopolitics of subject formation is that contemporary capitalist society " why does the subject become what it is now?" To effectively answer this question,we need to start from some specific practices and go deep into the reality and history of capitalist society.In this sense,it is necessary for the research on capitalist governmentality to go beyond the original framework of biopolitics and consciously trace back to the theoretical perspective of historical materialism,revealing the hidden logical premise of the capitalist strategy and the essential characteristics of capitalist society.Only in this way can we critically analyze and interpret how the power mechanisms shape the subject in the modern capitalist society,so as to cut in the current people's lifestyle and survival situation.For this reason,based on the theoretical perspective of historical materialism,a new judgment on the essential characteristics of a capitalist society has become the key link in the article's argument.Marx gives us the most important theoretical resource.He uses the concept of "capital" to penetrate the depths of capitalist history.It shows that if we want to accurately grasp the essential characteristics of the capitalist society,the most fundamental and thorough way is to build on the understanding of the term "capital".First of all,capital power as an extension of economic power manifests an "irresistible" purchasing power of money.Secondly,the fact that capital could buy labor means the formation of the personal domination of the currency holders over the labor owners.At the same time,capital mediated by property rights penetrates the law,which is incompatible with the law realistically regulates people's thoughts and behaviors,thus becoming a universal disciplinary power in capitalist society.Third,capital not only dominates and regulates people's thoughts and behaviors,but also permeates people's consciousness and soul with the principles of "fetishism," "materialization" and "rationalization".The "identity" ideological function of capital not only masks people's heterogeneity and diversity,but also deeply shapes people's unconsciousness.Thence the following argument is demonstrated: in the modern capital society,the form of dominant power that truly dominates us is not the transcendent authority and violence as political power above society,but the power of capital.The most typical form of power in a capitalist society is determined as capital power,the shaping of the subject by capital power and the corresponding power mechanism constitutes the connotation logic of capitalist governmentality.It is concentrated in the four dimensions of production,distribution,exchange and consumption.In the dimension of production,not only the capitalist application of the machine system continuously disciplines and constrains the workers' the life of species and the life of genus,but the capital accumulation mechanism continues to produce surplus(industrial reserve forces)and modern waste.In terms of distribution,the wage mechanism mobilizes people to "voluntarily" and "actively" self-invest or promote themselves,so that people continue to meet high standards and high efficiency in order to obtain high wages.Social security mechanisms also mark the identity of the least advantaged in society when compensate them.In the dimension of exchange,the talent market mechanism stimulates people to become “resourcesof human resources”,“capital of human resources ”and “economic man of rationality”,to invest themselves and to realize the continuous proliferation.In the dimension of consumption,increasingly sophisticated marketing mechanisms,advertising mechanisms and credit mechanisms continue to stimulate public consumption desires,create and produce mass consumption illusions,and enable people to obtain self-confirmation in consumption.From the perspective of capitalist governmentality,the four-dimensional subject formation consistently presents the biopolitics consequences of desubjectivization with capital multiplication as the axis.The liberal governmentality of capitalism has not truly inspired people's free personality and creative potential.Even if the subject's ability is improved,it is very different from the planning,shaping and control of capital power.The de-subjective formation of the subject by the capitalist power mechanism is only a unique way of governance in this particular historical stage of capitalist society.Foucault bluntly states that we do not reject governance and norms.The so-called critical attitude is not to be governed in this way or to be governed at such a cost.This means that governance is ubiquitous,but we need new forms of governance to promote the overall development and self-construction of the subject.To the end,we can explore possible alternatives to capitalist governmentality from three levels.First of all,institutional construction,that is,"private control of capital" shifts to "social control of capital".David Schweickart highly respects the economic development model of socialism with Chinese characteristics,because China is a successful model of "capital controlled by society".It not only avoids the emergence of capitalists with excessive capital,but also can effectively solve the problem of poverty and endeavor to build a comprehensive public service.Secondly,ethical construction,that is,implementing the principle of "unity" and constructing communism based on "commonality".Antonio Negri and Michael Hart propose "commonality" based on "immaterial production" in Italy.The most unique characteristic of the mode is that it highlights the immaterial or relational dimensions of products such as emotions and symbols.It is difficult to be delineated as private or shared,and placed in a new form of practice in the form of "public".Third,constructing subjectivity,transforming capitalist labor and constructing itself around the axis of human development logic.Marxists oppose the labor force as a commodity,in which David Schweickart inspects the Spanish Mondragon Corportacion Cooperativa(MCC),he thinks that self-management of workers in the Cooperativa could provide a Spanish mode beyond the form of capitalist labor.Unlike capitalist enterprises which inevitably create surplus and create unemployment,they do not treat labor as another "resource" such as land and capital.Instead,they take the development of workers as the axis,create employment and effectively responded to the unemployment problem in the 2008 financial crisis.From this point of view,the possible alternatives of capitalist governmentality are not limited to a single model,but can be combined with the unique internal experience,cultural traditions,thinking patterns and behavior habits of each country,to effectively advance human development as the axis;to advance the birth of a new governance style and the generation of the subject's self-construction.Research on capitalist governmentality not only casts the analysis and reflection on the current operation mechanism of capitalist power,but also represents the exploration and pursuit of a better human lifestyle in the future.The rational analysis of the capitalist power mechanism and the critique of biopolitics about subject formation provide scientific evidence for the people's lifestyle and survival situation.The possible alternatives of capitalist governmentality tend towards life potential and free personality,and indicate the future direction for it.