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Foucault saw the notion of parrhesia (truth-telling) as the most important factor for how governments could and should communicate with their people and vice versa. This important collection compiles and analyses Foucault's views on parrhesia to shed new light on his ideas on the importance of truth-telling in democracies.

The late Foucault's discussions of truth-telling (parrhesia) revolve around freedom of speech and the quality of democracy: citizens' courage to speak truth to power as well as political authorities' courage to speak truthfully as to what must be done. The notion of parrhesia held particular interest for Foucault as a result of its focus on the ground for exercising political authority. It connotes truthful and trustworthy speech, which goes hand in hand with the accountability and capability of democratic government. With parrhesia we get a political take on truth, for which personal integrity, frankness, timing, courage and resolve are defining features. Foucault's discussions of parrhesia are vital for getting at his political triangulation of power, knowledge and ethics, alias techniques of governmentality, truth-telling and the shaping of the relationship to self. These ideas provide the basis for approaching his discussions on the autonomy of politics and democratic political authority.

Foucault's discussions of parrhesia provide fertile ground for raising a number of classical and pertinent issues in political theory related to critique, citizenship, and political authority. Foucault situates parrhesia in his analytical grid of power/knowledge/ethics, which maps political participation and experience, and he looks at how those who pursue or contest political power articulate and integrate these three facets of politics, which might well pull in opposite directions. Power concerns the ability and the audacity to face up to important political tasks and to take action at the right time authoritatively and with resolve. Knowledge is vital for telling the truth from a partisan viewpoint and for making informed and balanced decisions. Ethics concerns the trustworthiness of those who either exercise or criticize political power and touches upon their dedication, sense of judgement, and personal integrity. The personal integrity of the citizen acting politically as well as his or her responsibility to the political community are among the main issues to be raised in relation to these themes. The same goes for the issues related to the nature of the political community, its institutional set-up and its culture, and whether it is authoritarian and marked by hierarchy and obedience or democratic and egalitarian. Thus, parrhesia captures some of the most vital dimensions of political life of how to exercise the political power of authority in a way that is both truthful and trustworthy. Foucault's discussions of parrhesia shed light on the democratic challenges and possibilities related to political power as governmentality.

The modern political distinction between right and left has functioned as the symbolic structuring of democratic politics. The significance of this political code lies in the institutionalisation of political discourse as relatively autonomous in relation to cultural and religious discourses in which right as a general rule has been conceived as positive and left as negative. Modern political revolutions marked the transformation of RIGHT/LEFT from a cultural and religious codex of domination/subordination to a political one of parity, which cleared a space for the legitimacy of opposition and disagreement as well as for public reason and the balancing of judgement. RIGHT/LEFT is thus associated with a political symbolic order that underpins the autonomy of democratic politics by signifying the distinction between parties of equal political status.

The modern political distinction between Right & Left has functioned as the symbolic structuring of democratic politics. The significance of this political code lies in the institutionalization of political discourse as relatively autonomous in relation to cultural & religious discourses in which Right, as a general rule, has been conceived as positive & Left as negative. Modern political revolutions marked the transformation of RIGHT/LEFT from a cultural & religious codex of domination/subordination to a political one of parity, which cleared a space for the legitimacy of opposition & disagreement, as well as for public reason & the balancing of judgment. RIGHT/LEFT is thus associated with a political symbolic order that underpins the autonomy of democratic politics by signifying the distinction between parties of equal political status. 4 Tables, 3 Figures, 32 References. Adapted from the source document.