Abstract
The relationship between politics and economic knowledge is contested. One general view claims that economics should be devoid of politics because of its corrupting effects, while another view posits the converse – that politics can be distorted by the impact of economic knowledge. Both views hold that the solution is to remove the influence of the one on the other. I construe these two broad views as variations on the same contamination thesis, the idea that politics and economics are separate domains and so should not contaminate one another. I suggest that this thesis is a version of the political/non-political distinction required by the ubiquitous ideal of a self-governing community, and that it therefore exhibits the limitations intrinsic to this ideal. The remedial possibilities of Michel Foucault's investigations into governmentality are then briefly explored.
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Notes
The idea of ideology's benign and banal nature also emerges in Schumpeter (1949).
Althusser's influential reading of political economy also used a science/ideology distinction, but here the pivot is not the intentions of subjects but the notion of an epistemological break. See especially chapter seven of Reading Capital (Althusser and Balibar, 1970). This procedure involved some telling difficulties, for which see Hindess (1993, pp. 323–328).
For an overview see Abdelal (2009).
Schmitt's affinity with Hobbes has been well noted. For Schmitt on Hobbes see Schmitt (1996b).
For the theme of the total state see also the first three chapters of Schmitt (1999).
See Foucault (2007, pp. 87–114).
For the best extension of this theme see the conclusion to (Hindess, 1996). Ian Hunter has sounded the strongest cautionary note against demoting sovereignty in this way (Hunter, 1998).
There is extensive empirical literature here. The best surveys are (Dean, 2010) and (Rose, 1999).
Note that Barry Hindess has raised concerns about the completeness and adequacy of this vision, especially when the existence of self-directing agents and the international system are taken into account (Hindess, 1997, 2005).
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