This essay seeks to verify the potentialities and limits of biopolitics as a key to a critique of the present, with particular attention to its use in certain analyses of contemporary Italian philosophy. The first part reconstructs some essential passages of Agamben’s work in this field. The second part focuses on the Foucauldian elaboration of the concept of biopolitics, with particular attention to its evolution within Foucault’s reflection. Finally, it is proposed to define a field within which biopolitics can be used as a critical paradigm for our time.