Abstract

In the initial steps of his «analytics of power», Foucault engaged with contemporary debates on classical issues of political theory, such as State theory and the relationship between political institutions and economic structures. In a critical dialogue with marxist approaches, he conceived the coercive dimension of political power - embodied in the «practices of repressive systems» - through a conceptual lens that seems to be influenced by the categories of classical political economy. This approach makes possible a more analytical reading of his early political thought. In particular, his view of political power can be interpreted as an attempt to think strategic relationships and the use of force by analogy with economic relations, and namely with macroeconomic analysis and marxian «schemes of reproduction».