Sovereign power and the hybrid nomadic subject in Hardt and Negri's "Empire"

Hardt and Negri’s book Empire (2000) attempts a synthesis of Marxian and poststructuralist ideas. Extensive use is made of Foucault’s concepts of sovereign power, disciplinary power, the swarming of disciplines and biopower. At the same time, there are important divergences from Foucault in the use of these concepts. A critical review shows that Hardt and Negri tend to assimilate sovereign and disciplinary forms of power, leading to a negative and repressive view of hegemonising power. This leads further to a somewhat abstract and impoverished view of subjectivity as being either totally dominated or totally resistant. By contrast, Foucault argues that sovereign and disciplinary forms of power are quite different, and that modern forms of power tend to be positive and productive, whether these forms are hegemonising or resistant. It is suggested that engagement with the literature on governmentality, neglected by Hardt and Negri, leads to a more concrete and nuanced view of the relations between power and subjectivity.