FROM OECONOMY TO THE ECONOMY - POPULATION AND SELF-INTEREST IN DISCOURSES ON GOVERNMENT

The emergence of population as an object of government in the 18th cen tury produced a new problematic of government. The focus of this new p roblematic was how to ensure that the pursuit of self-interest by indi vidual economic actors was compatible with the reproduction and useful employment of the population. From the 18th century to the present, g overnment in the West has addressed this problem in a number of differ ent ways, each of which represents a 'tricky adjustment' between a lib eral element concerned with commercial freedom and a pastoral element concerned with the welfare of the population. The tension between the liberal and pastoral elements of modern Western governance is explored by examining the place of commercial freedom within a householding co ncept of rule in which security at the level of the state is dependent upon the sovereign's rational management of the population.