Execution rituals were explicitly military displays of armed justice.
Evidence
This enables us to understand some of the characteristics of the liturgy of torture and execution – above all, the importance of a ritual that was to deploy its pomp in public. Nothing was to be hidden of this triumph of the law. … Now, this meticulous ceremonial was not only legal, but quite explicitly military. The justice of the king was shown to be an armed justice. The sword that punished the guilty was also the sword that destroyed enemies. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 105
Categorization
- XREF: The military apparatus surrounding the scaffold parallels the armed force protecting Power in later carceral/panoptic settings. — connects to: Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 125; Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83; Rather than displaying sovereign power, executions staged a reversible duel between executioner and people — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 119
Related
- Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence (similarity 0.89)
- Public execution functions as a political ritual of power, not mere justice. (similarity 0.86)
- The executioner personified the sovereign’s answering violence against the criminal. (similarity 0.86)
- Public execution reactivates injured sovereign power rather than restoring justice. (similarity 0.86)
- Rather than displaying sovereign power, executions staged a reversible duel between executioner and people (similarity 0.85)
- Execution sites and torments mirrored the crime’s form and setting (similarity 0.85)
- Sovereign power was recharged only through visible spectacle (similarity 0.84)
- Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly (similarity 0.83)
- Execution rituals forged solidarity between the people and petty offenders against power (similarity 0.83)
- State power neutralized spectacle by garrisoning execution squares (similarity 0.82)
- Public torture and execution was among the most popular spectacles of eighteenth-century France. (similarity 0.82)
- The sovereign executed regicides with symbolic maximal torture (similarity 0.82)
- Public executions produced disorder rather than deterrence for the crowd (similarity 0.81)
- Every crime was treated as an assault on the sovereign’s person (similarity 0.81)
- The king’s pardoning power displayed sovereignty more fully than the execution itself. (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence
#expands(0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 125 - Rather than displaying sovereign power, executions staged a reversible duel between executioner and people
#contradicts(0.82) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 119 - Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly
#expands(0.78) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83