a comparative analysis of foucault’s and marx’s theory of population

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1、AComparativeAnalysisofFoucault’sandMarx’sTheoryofPopulation　　Whenitcomestocontemporarypoliticaltheory，peopleconstantlymakecomparisonbetweenworksofFoucaultandMarx.WhilemostthesesfocusonFoucault’sandMarx’stheoryofpower，thisessaydiscussestheirtheoryofpopulation―animportantconceptinbothpeople’

2、sworks.Thisessayfirstintroducestheword’sorigin“populousness”.Inthebodypart，itanalyzesthebackgroundofthetwopeople’stheories，howtheyunderstandtheconceptpopulationandhowtheythinkpopulationworks.Fromthecomparativeanalysisitcanbeconcludedthattheconceptpopulationhaschangedinmanyaspectsfromanecon

3、omiccontextintoapoliticalcontextoverahundredyear.　　Populousness　　ThewordpopulationoriginsfromLatinword“populus”andpopulousnesshasalongandcomplicatedhistoryinwesternworld，whichshowedupasearlyasinAristotle’sPolitics.“Itpointstothesensethatunitsofgovernment（kingdoms，empires，countries，parishes

4、，cities）containgreaterorlessernumberofentities―hearths，soldiersorsouls，forinstance―distributedacrossdifferentordersorclasses”（Curtis508）.Theconceptpopulousnessmakesitpossibletoplanthefutureandthedegreeofitreflectstheindexofwealthandmeasureofpolicy.Basicallypopulousnessinvolvesnumberingpeop

5、le，andmoreimportantly，it“implieshierarchicaldifferentiationofordersofthepeople.”（Curtis508）　　PopulationofMarx　　Intheearlyandmid19thcentury，Europewitnessedamassivestormoffirstindustryrevolutionwheregreatchangesofeverysocialaspecttookplace.Engelspointedoutthatwiththeadventofthemachine，unempl

6、oymentaswellas“want，wretchedness，andcrime”allshowedup.Whatismore，henoticedtherewasagiganticexpansionofpopulationatthattime，whichcanberegardedasfirstformulationofKarlMarx’stheoryofpopulation.Marxtheoryofpopulationisalsocalledtheoryofsurpluspopulationsinceheintroduces“relativesurpluspopulati

7、on”inCapital：　　Thelaboringpopulationthereforeproduces，alongwithaccumulationofcapitalproducedbyit，themeansbywhich[it]itselfismaderelativelysuperfluous，itturnedintoarelativesurpluspopulation；anditdoesthistoanalwaysincreasingextent.（Marx692）　　AccordingtoMarx，thei