Governmentality

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) [Page 390]and government as being 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 population's 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 separate—for example the state, society, and family. Government is not viewed 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 “each and all,” or expressing a concern not only for the population as a whole but for every individual within the population as well. While the state may assign identities to those that govern, where conduct is more or less prescribed (e.g., executive, governor), there is the more subtle 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.

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