Hayek Program Podcast · Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Mark Pennington on Foucault’s Lessons for Liberal Political Economy

July 23, 2025·57 min·1 clip

How Foucault's theory of power can strengthen liberalism's critique of social control

This episode features an interview with Professor Mark Pennington about his 2025 book, *Foucault and Liberal Political Economy*. Pennington, a professor at King's College London and a European editor of the *Review of Austrian Economics*, argues for a serious liberal engagement with the influential French thinker Michel Foucault. Foucault's immense academic influence, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, serves as a primary motivator for this project. Pennington identifies a significant gap, noting that liberals have largely failed to systematically engage with Foucault despite his pervasive impact. He references Foucault's 1978-79 lectures, published as *The Birth of Biopolitics*, which present a surprisingly sympathetic account of certain liberal and neoliberal thinkers like Gary Becker. A key theme is exploring elements within Foucault's work that are compatible with a form of liberalism, rather than debating a personal "conversion." Pennington critiques dominant interpretations, like those from scholar Wendy Brown, which use Foucault's earlier ideas to deconstruct neoliberalism, arguing they often ignore his more nuanced analysis in the *Biopolitics* lectures. One of Foucault's most attractive ideas for liberalism, according to Pennington, is his concept of freedom as self-creation within social systems. Foucault's analysis of "disciplinary power" in institutions like prisons and mental asylums highlights how scientific management techniques categorize and control individuals. These techniques, he argues, are mobile and extend into systems like education, creating "power effects" that limit personal agency. Foucault also distinguishes this from "biopower," which targets entire populations through expert narratives claiming to correct societal disequilibria. Pennington draws parallels between Foucault's "situated individualism" and the thought of Friedrich Hayek and Michael Oakeshott, who also saw rationality as embedded within traditions. He applies a Foucauldian lens to potential blind spots within classical liberalism itself, such as an over-reliance on expert-designed incentive structures. The UK's "new public management" revolution in universities, with its auditing and performance metrics, is cited as an example of liberal-inspired reforms mutating into managerial technocracy. Pennington connects this to a broader critique of "scientism," the belief that society is a legible, manageable object for experts. He sees a strong compatibility between Hayek's skepticism of scientism and a Foucauldian analysis of the "power effects" of such narratives. The rapid public acquiescence to lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic is presented as a symptom of this deep-seated trust in technocratic authority. The conversation references James C. Scott's work on "legibility" and Eleanor Ostrom's Nobel lecture, which argued for facilitating bottom-up institutional creativity over top-down design. Pennington suggests his new book extends his earlier "robust political economy" framework by seriously considering how institutions affect identity and self-governance. He advocates for a "postmodern liberalism" characterized by radical pluralism, allowing for cultural "creative destruction" and personal experimentation. The tone is an intellectual, educational dialogue between two scholars well-versed in political economy and philosophy. Listeners interested in political theory, the history of ideas, or critiques of technocracy will find this episode deeply stimulating. Those seeking practical policy debates or a dismissive take on postmodern thought might find it too abstract.

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