Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers in France in 1926 and died in Paris in 1984. He was trained in philosophy and psychology, and one of his first posts was as an assistant in psychology. His work was influenced strongly by the work of the historian of medicine, Georges Canguilhem. He also wrote widely on contemporary literature (Macey, 1993). An appreciation of this intellectual background is significant to an understanding of Foucault as a political thinker. For Foucault did not come to the study of politics from any training in political theory. He wrote rather as someone with a background in philosophy and the history of science, whose approach to the study of politics was indirect. Part of the importance of Foucault's work is the way that he demonstrated the critical significance of the life sciences and social sciences to contemporary political life. At the same time, part of his originality derives from the way he was able to bring many of the analytical tools that he had developed in his studies of science to the study of politics and government.