Foucault introduces the problem this way: “Is homo oeconomicus an atom of freedom in the face of all the conditions, undertakings, legislation and prohibitions of a possible government, or was he not already a certain type of subject who precisely enabled an art of government to be determined according to the principle of economy, both in the sense of political economy and in the sense of the restriction, self-limitation and fragility of government? Obviously the way in which I have formulated this question gives the answer straightaway … homo oeconomicus as the partner, the vis-à-vis, and the basic element of the new governmental reason formulated in the eighteenth century.”

Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, loc. 491