governmentality
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What does the term 'governmentality' mean in political science?
In political science, "governmentality" refers to how people's behavior is governed through positive means rather than law. It expands the definition of government to include the active consent and willingness of individuals to participate in their own governance.
Coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault, the term combines "government" (conduct meant to shape people) and "rationality" (systematic thinking). The state designs systems to define populations through management, administration, and classification, enabling identification, classification, and control. Governmentality explores how we govern ourselves and others, aiming for governance "for each and all" and emphasizing the art of influencing the conduct of the governed.
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Who first introduced the concept of governmentality?
The concept of governmentality was introduced by French philosopher Michel Foucault in the 20th century. Governmentality is an approach to studying power that emphasizes governing people through their willing participation rather than by enforcing laws. It combines "government" (actions meant to shape people's conduct) and "rationality" (systematic thinking). Foucault argued that the state uses systems to define populations, enabling their management and control. Governmentality explores how we govern ourselves and others, concerning itself with both the population and each individual within it.
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How does governmentality relate to the ways governments control or influence people?
Governmentality is an approach to power that emphasizes governing people through their willing participation rather than by law. It expands the definition of government to include the active consent of individuals in their own governance.
Governmentality suggests that to control people, they must be defined through systems that classify them by income, race, or profession. Political power is exercised through diverse agencies and techniques, fostering the population's prosperity, health, and happiness. Governing becomes an art that influences the conduct of those governed, concerning itself with both the population and each individual. Modern governments also guide social and economic development through regulations.
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What is the difference between governmentality and traditional forms of government power?
Governmentality differs from traditional forms of government power by emphasizing the governing of people's conduct through positive means and willing participation rather than relying on sovereign power to formulate laws. Traditional government, especially in ancient times, involved comprehensive regulation, sometimes enforced through religion, with limited individual freedom.
Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality expands the definition of government to include individuals actively consenting and willingly participating in their own governance. It recognizes that the state is only one form of governing and includes self-governance where individuals shape their own conduct. Unlike autocratic governments that concentrate power and suppress opposition, governmentality focuses on shaping and guiding conduct through systematic thinking and defined systems.
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How might governmentality show up in everyday life or modern society?
Governmentality, as theorized by Michel Foucault, extends the concept of government beyond the state to include the self-regulation and willing participation of individuals in their own governance. It focuses on how the conduct of people is shaped and guided, not just by laws, but by various mechanisms and practices both within and outside state institutions.
In modern society, governmentality is evident in how governments foster the populationās well-being, health, and productivity, seeing its citizens as resources to be optimized. It manifests through the design of systems that classify and manage populations, such as income brackets or professional categories, enabling control and administration. This approach involves an understanding of the relationships between people and institutions, influencing conduct through a combination of knowledge, intuition, and administrative skills.
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Why do political scientists study governmentality to understand how societies are managed?
Political scientists study governmentality to understand how power shapes people's conduct through willing participation rather than just law. Governmentality expands the definition of government to include individuals' consent in their own governance, emphasizing that the state is not the only form of governing.
French philosopher Michel Foucault, who created the term, saw governmentality as the art of influencing the conduct of the governed, involving the imaginative application of knowledge and skills to management. Political scientists analyze the mechanisms of government and diverse practices inside and outside state institutions to understand these relationships. They view power as productive, fostering the populationās prosperity, health, and happiness, going beyond sovereign power.
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governmentality, approach to the study of power that emphasizes the governing of peopleās conduct through positive means rather than the sovereign power to formulate the law. In contrast to a disciplinarian form of power, governmentality is generally associated with the willing participation of the governed.
The concept of governmentality takes the definition of government as the exercise of organized political power by a nation or state (see also nation-state) and expands it to include the active consent and willingness of individuals to participate in their own governance. It proposes that government by the state is only one form of governing, that the terms state and government are not synonymous, and that actions taken by the state alone cannot bring about its desired ends.
Governmentality, an expression originally formulated by the 20th-century French philosopher Michel Foucault, combines the terms government and rationality. Government in this sense refers to conduct, or an activity meant to shape, guide, or affect the conduct of people. Conduct takes on meaning beyond the form of leading and directing. It also refers to the āconduct of oneselfā where a sense of self-governance is a guiding force. Rationality, as a form of thinking that strives to be systematic and clear about how things are or ought to be, suggests that before people or things can be controlled or managed, they must first be defined. Therefore, the state designs systems for defining populations, which make them known and visible. They include mechanisms of management and administration (work processes, procedures, rules) and ways of classifying individuals or groups (by income, race, professional and personnel categories), which allow for their identification, classification, ordering, and control.
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Power relations
Governmentality views power as productive. In this perspective, the objectives of power relations take on three forms fundamental to modern authority. Sovereign power is viewed as exercising authority over subjects within a territory or state (taxing, laws), disciplinary power is seen as regulating the ordering of people within a territory (schools, military, work), and government is conceived as a form of power concerned with the capacities and relations between people as resources to be fostered and optimized. Good government is seen as going beyond the exercise of sovereign power in order to foster the populationās prosperity, health, longevity, productivity, and happiness. It is recognized that political power is exercised in a number of ways through different agencies, social groups, and techniques, which may be only loosely associated with the formal bureaucracy of the state. Governmentality, then, is interested in an analysis of the mechanisms of government and the specific and diverse processes or practices found inside and outside state institutions that cut across domains normally thought of as separateāfor example, the state, society, and family. Government is viewed not as a sole actor but, rather, as an assemblage of diverse elements, practices, and ways of thinking coming together to both frame and resolve problems.
Governing as art
Governmentality does not intend to supplant the notions of state authority where power is typically exercised vertically through the application of decisions, bureaucratic structure, or rules. Governmentality does suggest, however, that an additional horizontal approach be taken to gain an understanding of underlying relationships, which constitute the people and institutions within a population. Its ultimate concern is how we govern others and ourselves, how a government becomes one for āeach and all,ā or expressing a concern not just for the population as a whole but also for every individual within the population. Although the state may assign identities to those who govern, where conduct is more or less prescribed (e.g., executive, governor), there is the subtler implication of how to influence the direction of the conduct of the governed. Thus viewed, governing is an art involving the imaginative application of intuition, knowledge, and skills to administration and management.