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Liberty
“In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill started by admitting that democratic nations did offer their citizens a high degree of freedom, in contrast to the situation in, for example, the Russian Empire. And yet, Mill insisted, what makes a person free is a complex thing, and if we’re really interested in promoting freedom we should…
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Foucault and crises of governmentality
According to Foucault, a supposedly liberal government will sometimes be driven into contradictory efforts to constrain individuals’ freedom. People can only act as responsible citizens if they are made conscious of certain dangers eg financial ruin, communicable diseases, that demand appropriate behaviours eg insurance, immunization. Foucault would add fear of crime through news or fiction…