Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: A conversation with Mark Pennington

Jonathan Fortier and Mark Pennington discuss whether Michel Foucault’s work shares commonalities with the liberal tradition. In a conversation that covers theories of knowledge, human identity, and social and political thought, Pennington argues that Foucault’s concerns about abusive power and its effects on individual liberty open his work to productive consideration for classical liberals and libertarians. While the young Foucault was hostile to liberal understandings of liberty, his later work can be understood as increasingly sympathetic to the principles and methodologies of the classical liberal tradition.

You can buy his new book here.

More about our guest:

Mark Pennington is a British political economist and professor of political economy and public policy at King’s College London. His research focuses on classical liberalism, public choice theory, institutional economics, and the role of markets in addressing social and environmental challenges. Pennington is known for exploring how decentralized decision-​making and spontaneous order can outperform centralized planning in complex societies.

He has written extensively on issues such as environmental governance, urban planning, and the limits of government intervention, often emphasizing the importance of knowledge dispersion and incentives. Among his notable works are Robust Political Economy and Liberating the Land, where he examines how institutional frameworks shape economic and social outcomes. Most recently he has published Foucault and Liberal Political Economy (Oxford, 2025).

In addition to his academic work, Pennington has been involved with several policy think tanks and contributes to debates on public policy, regulation, and economic reform. His scholarship bridges theory and practice, aiming to apply economic reasoning to real-​world governance problems.