That passage you just posted was a direct slap in the face to hacks like Chomsky who are all about critiquing the government and its illegitimate use of power on a constant basis. I wish Foucault had that debate with Chomsky around this time he gave the “Birth of Biopolitics” lectures. I wonder what old Noam would have to say to that.
Regardless, Foucault won that debate.

Btw, you really seem to be an ardent fan of The Birth of Biopolitics. I just purchased it and it didn’t actually seem partial or tentative, though perhaps I could say it was a little incomplete, not in the deficiency sens but rather in the sense that Heidegger left his work incomplete focusing on questions he thought were more important towards the end.
In fact, I found The Birth of Biopolitics to be as good if not better than Security, Territory, Population.

What’s your take on all this?

And if anyone wants to understand Foucault’s concept of biopower or governmentality well, a good introduction would be his short pamphlet or introduction to his originally planned tome on sexuality, The History of Sexuality Volume 1. For me, it summed up biopower and queer theory and remains probably my favorite Foucault book, along with Discipline and Punish and The Archaeology of Knowledge.