Power Relations Analysis in Rival Perspectives of Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault

The article aims at presenting two opposite socio-philosophical stances, to which most of research on power within the framework of discourse studies can be attributed. These outlooks are represented by the names of Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault. The discussion between these intellectuals constitutes the basis for the comparative analysis presented in the article. The competing approaches to the following questions are juxtaposed: what is political power, why power relations need to be analyzed and possibly changed, what is the role of ideas like "struggle", "freedom" or "justice" in these processes. For many researchers interested in discursive manifestations of power relations, this set of notions delineates the scope of normatively legitimate pragmatic issues inscribed into the research practice. The aim of the paper is to closely examine the assumptions underlying the rival solutions to the above mentioned issues. This is achieved by presenting the contrasting arguments used as a means for the justification of legitimacy and moral rightness of each standpoint.