Governmentality

These two readings delineate two transformations of society, one, that concerns mainly modes of government of society. The other describes specifically how society is using its institutions, schools, hospitals, prisons, to control its individuals.
In “Governmentality”, Foucault focuses on the transformation of political institutions, from the figure of the sovereign to the establishment of the state, and “the art of government” as the final stage of these transformations. Throughout the passage he compares several works. First he talks about Machiavelli’s The Prince, a work that deals mainly with the arts by which a prince can gain control over his realm. He then deals with an anti-Machiavellain author, La Perriere, and his work Miroir Politique. This author deals with a multiplicity of forms of government, of which the principality only composes one of these. He then mentions La Mothe Le Vayer, who says that the three essential forms of government are self government, the government of the family, and the government of a state. Foucault explains that while the principality and sovereignty in general are concerned with the distinction between their form of power and any other kind of power, the focus of the government is on continuity, which can be upward (when an individual first learns to govern himself, and then all that is around him) or downward (a state is well run when individuals behave as they should, or through the police). Through a further comparison of authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, Foucault shows evidence for a movement aiming towards a new finality in the government.
In dealing with Rousseau’s Encyclopedia he begins to explain “economy” as the government of a family, or a state, the surveillance that one has over his goods. La Perriere defines government as the running of a ship; through the control of the shipmen, and externalities such as weather, the captain can properly take charge. Frederick the Great also points out that territory is not as important. On the contrary, Machiavelli deals mostly with the prince’s control of his territory, and its inhabitants.
Therefore, more recent definitions of government have to do with the things that it administers.
He uses Mercantilism as the first example of an application of government of the state. However, it was still centered around the figure of the sovereign.
By the eighteenth century, however, after a demographic expansion and growth of wealth, the notions of “population” and “economy” took place. Population becomes the end of government. The government of state is the final stage of three types of state: the first two are the state of justice, and the administrative state.
Finally, he says that “governmentality” is born of the Christian pastoral model, a diplomatico-military model, and finally, the police.
In “Postscript on Control Societies” Gilles Deleuze describes another transformation of society, from disciplinary, to control-based. While before society was made of separate, closed sites which each had their own law, now society is based on control, which is a molding that constantly changes from one moment to the next. As Kafka puts it, everything in control societies is but an endless postponement. We never finish anything. We can see this with money, with exchange rates, which continue to change each day, with new technologies, and with the transformation of capitalism from a production, to “metaproduction”. It doesn’t sell things, but services, and activities.