Deleuze in his book on Foucault defines government as the power to affect in all
its aspects. The article follows Deleuze’s reading of Foucault in order to clarify
this definition. This concept of government opens a new perspective for political
theory because it allows to see that governmental actions are operated not only
by the State or big institutions, but also by social forces and actors. In order to
understand what it means “power to affectµ in this contest, we will reconstruct
Deleuze’s relation with the molecular ontology of Gabriel Tarde. Moreover, we will
analyze the notion of institution that is crucial to explain the efficacy of government’s
affections. This will give us the opportunity to show the breaking point between
Deleuze’s micropolitics and Foucault microphysics of power. Foucault understands
institutions only as limiting practices that normalize the social; on the contrary, Deleuze
discovers the positive and productive character of institutions: they are able to satisfy
desire and imagine new types of social assemblages.