The book is a publication of lectures by Michel Foucault, given by him at the Collège de France in the 1977-1978 academic year. These lectures should be considered as part of a diptych together with the course taught later on “The Birth of Biopolitics.” The central concept of the lecture courses is the concept of biopower, introduced by Foucault back in 1976. Both courses are aimed at tracing the genesis of this “power over life”, in the emergence of which the author sees one of the main events in the history of mankind, since this concept itself and the practices corresponding to it have produced the most radical changes in the way of human existence. The ultimate goal of these changes is the emergence of homo oeconomicus, “civil society” and the corresponding liberal model of governance. Liberal governance paradoxically combines the principle of self-restraint of power and constant government intervention in order to produce, increase and guarantee the freedoms that the liberal system needs. The publication is addressed to historians, philosophers, economists and anyone interested in the current state of Western European thought.