Politics and biopolitics: An approach from Foucault, Agamben and Ranciere

This paper seeks to clarify conceptually the difference between politics and biopolitics. To accomplish this objective, the text explores Foucault's concern for how biological life begins to be conducted by modern government techniques. Next, it complements Foucault's intuition with Agamben's perspective, showing that biopolitics is the metaphysical form that shapes the political in the West. Finally, with the help of Ranciere, it is shown that biopolitics is not a metaphysical form that produces bare life but a form of the police distribution of sensibility that reacts to the scandal politics brings.