Abstract

This article explores the relationships between politics and security. Indeed, in recent years security has apparently become one of the key issues of public policy (health, environment, food or terrorism prevention). The importance of security has transformed the grounding structures of political actions and the government. This process has been studied by the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault in his courses at the Collège de France ("Security, Territory and Population", 1978 and "The Birth of Biopolitics", 1979). The article exposes Foucault's theses about "bio-power" and security and it discusses the way in which Foucault links the transformation of politics in modern national states since the XVIII century and liberalism and neo-liberalism.