Government and Governmentality: Using Multiple Approaches to the Analysis of Government

This article analyses a single case in the application of government authority to illustrate a central analytical problem for political science--what is meant by 'government'--and uses two divergent analytic approaches. The established 'liberal instrumentalist' framework is contrasted with the 'governmentality' approach, derived from Foucault, which stresses the complexity of the processes through which government is 'assembled' from a complex of institutions, practices and ways of thinking. The article analyses the regulation of motor vehicle repairing in New South Wales in terms of these two approaches, and shows that each addresses some aspects of the process better than others. It argues that this means that each needs to be deployed, mobilises the distinction between the 'vertical' and 'horizontal' dimensions of government, and suggests ways in which political science can be strengthened by the 'governmentality' approach.