"I spent alot of time in France growing up and I always imagined that a lot of his importance there is due to a stultifying official communist environment and the lack of many Chomsky like figures which makes Foucault appear more novel than he actually was. His importance in other countries may have something to do with fashionable imports that arent too threatening at first glance."
Well, he was fashionable, he was French, and however "subversive" his analysis was, there was always this dark subtext: "there is hope, but not for us." So, you got the thrill of "discovery" and the agony of defeat -- over and over and over. A kind of radical intellectual masochism. Ultimately, not threatening.
Joanna