Industrial growth subordinated political power to economic capacity

Evidence

Both technologies are obviously technologies of the body, but one is a technology in which the body is individuahzed as an organism endowed with capacities, while the other is a technology in which bodies are replaced by general biological processes. One might say this: It is as though power, which used to have sovereignty as its modality or organizing schema, found itself unable to govern the economic and political body of a society that was undergoing both a demographic explosion and industrialization. So much so that far too many things were escaping the old mechanism of the power of sovereignty, both at the top and at the bottom, both at the level of detail and at the mass level. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 264 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

All nation-states, capitalist and state socialist, within the “developed” sectors of the world, are primarily reliant upon industrial production for the generation of the wealth upon which their tax revenues are based. The socialist countries form something of an enclave within the capitalist world economy as a whole, industry being more directly subject to political imperatives. These states are scarcely post-capitalist, but the influence of capitalistic markets upon the distribution of goods and labour power is substantially muted. The pursuit of growth by both Western and East European societies inevitably pushes economic interests to the forefront of the policies which states pursue in the international arena. But it is surely plain to all, save those under the sway of historical materialism, that the material involvements of nation-states are not governed purely by economic considerations, real or perceived. The influence of any particular state within the global political order is strongly conditioned by the level of its wealth (and the connection between this and military strength). However, states derive their power from their sovereign capabilities, as Hans J. Morgenthau emphasises. They do not operate as economic machines, but as “actors” jealous of their territorial rights, concerned with the fostering of national cultures, and having strategic geopolitical involvements with other states or alliances of states. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 181 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Economic dominance does not automatically translate into political rule; Demographic explosion and industrialization forced power beyond sovereignty — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 264; Demographic explosion and industrialization overwhelmed the old sovereign power model (+5 more)

Related

• Demographic explosion and industrialization overwhelmed the old sovereign power model (similarity 0.90)
• Demographic explosion and industrialization forced power beyond sovereignty (similarity 0.89)
• State power derives from sovereign capabilities, not merely economic wealth (similarity 0.84)
• Economic dominance does not automatically translate into political rule (similarity 0.84)
• Demographic explosion and industrialization forced sovereignty to yield to biopower. (similarity 0.83)
• Economic growth weakened political factors and made economic capacity the modern prerequisite of power (similarity 0.81)
• Exported capital requires strong state power over new domains (similarity 0.81)
• Timing of industrialization determines how interventionist a state becomes (similarity 0.80)
• Much societal power remains beyond the political system’s reach (similarity 0.80)
• More industrially developed countries display the future of less developed ones (similarity 0.79)
• States were once expected to produce passions, not merely check them (similarity 0.79)
• Industrialization created problems no single state could solve, forcing centralization (similarity 0.78)
• Classical political economy presumed political sovereignty over economic activity. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Demographic explosion and industrialization forced power beyond sovereignty #corroborates (0.95) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 264
• Demographic explosion and industrialization overwhelmed the old sovereign power model #corroborates (0.95)
• State power derives from sovereign capabilities, not merely economic wealth #contradicts (0.88) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 181
• Industrial civilization can develop inside a feudal-bureaucratic shell #expands (0.72)
• State intervention in capitalism grows from saver flight toward guaranteed returns #expands (0.72)