Foreign Rights

Michel Foucault’s last decade coincided with a brutal decline of the hopes for social transformation that had emerged in the post-war period. Confronted with this « end of the revolution », the philosopher tried to reinvent the way we think about politics and resistance, which he felt his generation had failed to do. It is with this perspective in mind that he became interested in neoliberalism as a tool to rethink the conceptual foundations of the left and to conceive of a governmentality that is more tolerant of social experiments, opening a space for minority practices and greater autonomy of the individual. In short, the means of carrying out the project stated at the end of his life, that of « not being governed quite so much ». In this respect, Foucault paradoxically reduced the scope of social critique and, in his quest for a « left governmentality », anticipated and contributed to the shaping of the contemporary political situation.

The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis has spurred renewed enthusiasm for the idea of a universal basic income in both Europe and America. The project finds support from the left as well as the right and, according to many experts, could form the foundation for future social policy. More than one critical thinker has advocated for it – Philippe Van Parijs, Toni Negri, José Bové, or André Gorz – but what does this astonishing consensus really mean? According to the authors of this book, universal basic income, under the guise of a benevolent redistribution of wealth, confirms the abandonment of the central political issue of the last one hundred and fifty years: the conflict between capital and labour. Each of the texts in this book invokes the crucial importance of this question, and demonstrates why it is imperative to oppose universal basic income.