Governmentality

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Gouvernementality (French governmentality) is a term in social and historical sciences. It goes back to the French social theorist Michel Foucault . Governmentality encompasses a whole range of manifestations of modern government that control the behavior of individuals and collectives. Foucault defines:

By governmentality I mean the totality made up of the institutions, the procedures, analyzes and reflections, the calculations and the tactics that allow this rather specific and yet complex form of power to be exercised, the main target being the population and the main form of knowledge being political Economics and, as an essential technical instrument, the security disposition.
Secondly, by governmentality I understand the tendency or the line of force which, throughout the whole of the West, has incessantly and for a very long time led to the primacy of this type of power, which can be described as 'government', over all others - sovereignty , discipline - and the development of a whole series specific government apparatus on the one hand and a whole range of forms of knowledge on the other.
Finally, I believe that governmentality (...) should be understood as the result of the process by which the medieval state of justice, which became an administrative state in the 15th and 16th centuries, 'governmentalized' itself step by step. (…) This governmentalization of the state was the phenomenon that enabled the state to survive. (...) We live in the age of governmentality (...) .

Foucault's definition of governmentality has remained fragmentary. Following Foucault, the interdisciplinary direction of governmentality studies, which Foucault's conception further expanded, revised and empirically applied, developed - only in the Anglo-American region, and increasingly in Germany since the turn of the millennium.

Concept history

Governmentality in older contexts

In German, at the end of the 19th century, the term 'governmentality' was used to describe the governmental orientation of parties and individuals under Bismarck .

Roland Barthes used the term in his analysis of everyday myths in the 1950s in order to use this "barbaric but inevitable neologism [...] to conceptualize the government that the mass press sees as the essence of effectiveness". Barthes used it to describe the media-driven reversal of a causal relationship that the mass media government had described as the cause of social relationships. Michel Foucault adopted the term, but removed it from its semiotic context .

Governmentality at Foucault

In its current use, especially in political science and sociology , the term governmentality goes back to Michel Foucault, who first used it in his lecture at the Collège de France in the academic year 1977–1978. The lecture in which he introduced the term was part of a series of lectures in which he applied the genealogical method to a number of key political science concepts such as state , civil society , citizens, and government . His elaboration remained fragmentary, however, after the lectures of 1978/1979 he only took up the topic sporadically. A further planned preoccupation with governmentality prevented Foucault's death in 1984.

The systematic elaboration of the idea of ​​governmentality in Foucault can be found in the lecture of February 1, 1978 ( La »Gouvernementalité« ). The first publication of a transcript took place in 1978 in Italian in the magazine aut-aut . Their translation back into French was the source of the further distribution of the text, for example the English edition of 1979 was based on this translation. In Dits et Ecrits , an edited version with improved content was published, which is decisive for further reception. The first German publication of the entire text can be found in the anthology Gouvernementality der Gegenwart from 2000.

German translation

In the German Foucault literature, the translation government mentality was partly a mistranslation that was based on the misunderstanding that governmentality resulted from the contraction of the French terms gouvernement (government) and mentalité (mentality, way of thinking). This association is intentional; however: "The root of the word is clearly the adjective gouvernemental (" concerning the government ") and it seems rather that Foucault uses neologism as an antithesis to sovereignty (sovereignté) ." In the meantime, the translation governmentality has prevailed.

Position in Foucault's work

Foucault developed the term governmentality in his work at a late point in time. It was preceded by extensive research on modern power relations, the history of prisons, older concepts of governance and the like. a.

Analysis of power relations

In his work, Foucault had defended himself against the traditional juridical power analysis, which was shaped by the idea of sovereignty . Up to surveillance and punishment he had conceived power primarily as a micropower, in whose analysis struggle, war and conquest played decisive roles. Based on the observation that power always creates resistance, it is often precisely this resistance he has observed that Foucault uses to orient research questions and which offer the first access for analysis. For Foucault, the analysis of power mechanisms is part of the elaboration of the respective governmentality. which he clarifies with the empirical object:

  • In “ Surveillance and Punish ” his subject of investigation is the “microphysics of power”. As a disciplinary power, this microphysics of power intervenes in the body and mind of people and replaces sovereignty power in the modern state.
  • In " The Will to Knowledge ", he examined in the light of the emerging nation-states the bio-power and state power strategies that organic policy that relate to the population, their ability to work their health and reproduction.

In his lectures at the Collège de France, Foucault assumes that the modern state was created through the combination of pastoral and political power techniques.

  • The “ pastoral power ”, a form of power that emerged from Christianity in the form of the police ( policey ) in the modern western state, Foucault analyzes as a type of power related to the entire community as well as to the “salvation of the soul” of the individual, which guides the individuals, truths about producing yourself.
  • Foucault examines the “ raison d'état ” as a concept of the state based on pastoral power. The state is developing a political technology here to guide individuals. The state is developing the police for the institutional implementation of this technology. The individual is stopped and directed to ensure the happiness of the state.
  • The political economy , which is oriented towards society in the model of the free market and the figure of the homo oeconomicus as a countermovement to the raison d'etat in the form of political liberalism , is considered by Foucault as a new place with regard to the knowledge produced here and the development of society natural processes and courses.

The analysis of the microphysics of power brought with it the problem of criticizing local practices of the state, such as the prison or the hospital, without understanding them as a result of social power relations. Foucault expanded his concept of power to take account of the relationship between subjectification processes and forms of rule.

Concept at Foucault

Foucault's research on the genealogy of power / knowledge regimes - sovereignty power, disciplinary power, normalization society and the subjectivizations that take place therein , bio-power , technologies of the self - is summarized under the umbrella term governmentality . Foucault thus found his own concept of government, which describes state power not only as the connection between different micro-powers. Foucault's concept of government allows leadership to be thought of neither in terms of law nor of power and war alone.

For Foucault, the concept of governmentality denotes a concept in which all forms of public coexistence and personal behavior are subject to regulation. Foucault claims to describe forms, techniques and arts of governance that are found in a network of power and knowledge not only in the management of a state, but also in the diverse power relationships between physicians / clients, students / teachers and within the family to find the guidance of "oneself" ( subjectification ). The term government makes it possible to describe the hinge function between power and domination and to link domination techniques with “techniques of the self”.

Governmentality encompasses, on the one hand, the representation and rationalization of power in its discourses and dispositifs as an external and social form, and on the other hand, techniques within the individual, his self-management, the constitution of the subject, the “subjectification” and individual pursuit of an ethic of existence. The subject of Foucault's research is therefore not only the institutions of power, of knowledge and their associated practices and their effect on individuals, but also the self-techniques and self-guidance of individuals.

Three aspects of governmentality

With the concept of governmentality - for the first time in his lecture "Genealogy of the Modern State", Foucault summarizes three interrelated phenomena to denote the characteristic ways of governing in late capitalist societies.

Political Rationality

For Foucault, this term describes a specific structure of institutions , the interaction of codified procedures, formal laws and unconscious habits. In the classic tripartite division of political science, this first aspect would correspond most closely to the formal structures of polity .

Power type

Foucault expands the understanding of the special form of power government as it unfolds its effect in modern society. This government is characterized by the interaction of external external guidance and discipline on the one hand and internal self - management , self-discipline and self-management of the individuals on the other. In his earlier works (e.g. Der Wille zum Wissen , 1976) Foucault advocated a new conception of power analysis . "Power is not an institution, is not a structure, is not a power of some powerful people". The current search for a prohibitive, sovereign power as a controlling and monitoring suppressive power limits our understanding of how power can also work.

Historical process

The concept of governmentality includes a look at the specific historical development of modern societies. From Foucault's point of view, the historical development took place as a transition from the medieval state of justice (which is not a power state in the sense of Plato's state idea ) to a modern administrative state that is gradually "governmentalized". The development of the modern state is closely linked to that of liberalism : Liberalism organizes the conditions under which individuals can be free, but creates a fragile freedom that is constantly threatened and becomes the object of state intervention.

Reception and effect

Governmentality Studies

Following Foucault, a series of research papers on the concept appeared in the 1970s and 1980s, most of which arose from the seminars at the Collège de France . These were mainly created by direct colleagues or students of Foucault ( Daniel Defert , François Ewald , Jacques Donzelot , Giovanna Procacci , Pasquale Pasquino ) and their content was mainly focused on developments in the 19th century. Since the 1990s, the circle of governmentality researchers has expanded far beyond Foucault's direct student body.

Governmentality studies have been gaining popularity in the Anglo-American language area since the early 1990s and currently also in Germany and France . These do not follow Foucault's genealogical-historical research line, but use his analytical instruments to analyze current social transformations, especially those that they understand as neoliberalism.

The studies deal, among other things, with medicine, genetics, health policy , organizational sociology, risk and insurance, urban planning and criminology. As an instrument for their analysis, many authors use Foucault's concept of governmentality to describe the neoliberal transformation of the state or society : In the course of this neoliberal transformation, the imperative of self-management, self-management, self-control and self-regulation would be universalized. The individual becomes an entrepreneur of himself.

In this context, governmentality describes a shift towards more resourceful, more subtle and finely tuned government action. Every aspect of life takes place in a field, the boundaries of which are set by the state or an agency or public organization, and which is regulated by a multitude of rules, licenses, and oversight. While open governance appears to be on the decline, there is no longer any area of ​​life that is not subject to multiple state influence. This influence does not come from a central authority, but from countless micro-powers, such as schools, neighborhood initiatives, welfare organizations, public companies, etc., which maintain, modify and create what we perceive as a state.

Governmentality Studies essentially pursue two different research approaches: one is questions of political rationality. They ask how political programs develop in the midst of broader discourses to make subjects governable, and how they legitimize government institutions to do so. It is not just a question of which programs are implemented, but also the categories and problems that government action creates in the first place, i.e. the question of how the government induces itself.

The second research approach deals with action in the narrower sense. This is about the special techniques with which it achieves its goals, the variety of programs, organizations, calculations and determinations to motivate, motivate, force, request etc. subjects to take certain actions. Here the approach to governementality differs greatly from traditional forms political science, the history of ideas or sociology. The approach examines how these innumerable micro-practices are contingently combined into state action.

Governmentality at Agamben

Giorgio Agamben's term “governmentality” takes up parts of Foucault 's concept and connects it with the theories of Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Michel Foucault: Analysis of Power . Frankfurt am Main, 2005, pp. 171f
  2. ^ Roland Barthes : Myths des Alltags , Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp 1964, p. 114.
  3. ↑ Ulrich Bröckling, Susanne Krasmann, Thomas Lemke: From Foucault's Lectures at the Collège de France to Studies of Governmentality in: diess. (Ed.): Governmentality: current issues and future challenges Taylor & Francis, 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-99920-5 , p. 1.
  4. ^ A b c Hendrik Wagenaar: Meaning in Action: Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis ME Sharpe, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7656-1789-7 , p. 124.
  5. ↑ a b Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann, Ulrich Bröckling: Governmentality. Neoliberalism and self-technologies. An introduction in: Bröckling / Krasmann / Lemke p. 17.
  6. ^ Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann, Ulrich Bröckling: Gouvernementality. Neoliberalism and self-technologies. An introduction in: Bröckling / Krasmann / Lemke p. 36.
  7. ↑ Thomas Lemke: History and Experience. Michel Foucault and the traces of power. In: Michel Foucault: Analysis of Power . Frankfurt am Main, 2005, note 49 (p. 334)
  8. ^ A b c d Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann, Ulrich Bröckling: Gouvernementality. Neoliberalism and self-technologies. An introduction in: Bröckling / Krasmann / Lemke p. 8.
  9. ↑ Michel Foucault: Analysis of Power. Frankfurt am Main, 2005, p. 243.
  10. ^ Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann, Ulrich Bröckling: Gouvernementality. Neoliberalism and self-technologies. An introduction in: Bröckling / Krasmann / Lemke p. 11.
  11. ↑ Michel Foucault: How is power exercised? in: HL Dreyfus / P. Rabinow / M. Foucault, Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics . Frankfurt am Main, Athens, 1987
  12. ^ Michael Foucault, History of Gouvernementality (I, II), Frankfurt am Main, 2004
  13. ^ Rainer Keller, Foucault , Konstanz, 2008
  14. ↑ a b Hendrik Wagenaar: Meaning in Action: Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis ME Sharpe, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7656-1789-7 , p. 125.
  15. ↑ Dominik Nagl, No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions - Rechtsstransfer, Staatsbildung und Governance in England, Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1630-1769, Berlin 2013, p. 31f. [1]
  16. ↑ Michel Foucault : The will to knowledge , Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp 1976, p. 114.
  17. ↑ Plato: Gorgias 466b – 470d.
  18. ^ Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann, Ulrich Bröckling: Gouvernementality. Neoliberalism and self-technologies. An introduction in: Bröckling / Krasmann / Lemke p. 14.
  19. ^ Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann, Ulrich Bröckling: Gouvernementality. Neoliberalism and self-technologies. An introduction. In: Bröckling / Krasmann / Lemke p. 18.
  20. ^ Ulrich Bröckling: The entrepreneurial self. 2007. ISBN 978-3-518-29432-1
  21. ↑ a b Hendrik Wagenaar: Meaning in Action: Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis ME Sharpe, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7656-1789-7 , S. 126th

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