FOUCAULT AND THE POLITICS OF RESISTANCE

It is impossible to comprehend Michel Foucault's politics without full y understanding his concept of resistance. It was developed in three d istinct stages, beginning with a focus on difference in the 1960s, pas sing through an emphasis on revolutionary agitation in the years 1970s , and finally developing into a broader notion of diffuse, localized r esistance to power in his later work. Contrary to the claims of those who assert that Foucault's notion of a ubiquitous and insidious power paralyzes, his notion of resistance supports a wide range of political action. The problem with his politics is elsewhere: his refusal to de fine any limits to resistance means endorsing all forms of opposition without regard to their form or consequences.