In totalitarian states, real power correlates inversely with institutional visibility

Evidence

While this kind of archaeology, maturing in the age of mechanical reproduction, was profoundly political, it was political at such a deep level that almost everyone, including the personnel of the colonial state (who, by the 1930s, were in most of Southeast Asia 90 per cent native) was unconscious of the fact. It had all become normal and everyday. It was precisely the infinite quotidian reproducibility of its regalia that revealed the real power of the state. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 675 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In Bentham’s panopticon prison, however, the opposite is true: prisoners work dutifully as long as the inspector is not in view; in his presence, they stage, as it were, indiscipline, idleness and disorder. Thus, in the panopticon, the inspector exposes himself to the eyes of the prisoners as little as possible: all of his power over the prisoners derives from his invisibility, or more precisely, his ‘invisible omnipresence’. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Do not regard power as a phenomenon of mass and homogeneous domination—the domination of one individual over others, of one group over others, or of one class over others; keep it clearly in mind that unless we are looking at it from a great height and from a very great distance, power is not something that is divided between those who have it and hold it exclusively, and those who do not have it and are subject to it, Power must, | think, be analyzed as something that circulates, or rather as something that functions only when it is part of a chain. It is never localized here or there, it is never in the hands of some, and it 1s never appropriated in the way that wealth or a commodity can be appropriated. Power functions. Power is exercised through networks, and individuals do not simply circulate in those networks; they are in a position to both submit to and exercise this power. They are never the inert or consenting targets of power; they are always its relays. In other words, power passes through individuals. It is not apphed to them. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 47 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mystified power thrives when citizens are far from its sources; Jewish prominence grew inversely with their real power and with nation-state stability; Totalitarian government is a powerless façade over real party power (+10 more)

Related

• Mystified power thrives when citizens are far from its sources (similarity 0.84)
• The state’s power works most effectively when its political nature becomes invisible and everyday (similarity 0.82)
• Power grows stronger the less visible it is (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The state’s power works most effectively when its political nature becomes invisible and everyday #corroborates (0.95) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 675
• Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence #corroborates (0.85) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38
• Power circulates through networks rather than being possessed by rulers #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 47
• Confused hierarchies make totalitarian rule shock-proof and command-certain #expands (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 922