Public authorities cannot police all offences, so citizens must self-monitor
Evidence
A last reason why widespread civility is needed is that the public authorities cannot hope to identify and sanction all offences against republican laws and norms; ordinary people also have to be committed enough to perform in that role or to support the efforts of the authorities: ordinary people have to maintain the eternal vigilance that constitutes the price of republican liberty. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1291 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
In the late eighteenth century, philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed a prison structure that would allow for constant surveillance of prisoners. Bentham labeled this semicircular prison structure the panopticon. It allowed for the control of prisoners because guards were able to constantly watch them and prisoners were aware they were constantly being watched (Lyon 1994). In Discipline and Punish, Foucault built on Bentham’s panopticon and developed the concept of panopticism, which is the process wherein certain populations are subjected to constant surveillance and discipline, highlighting relationships of power in society: “The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it, produces homogenous effects of power” (1995: 202). For Foucault, the structure of the prison is no longer physically necessary for social control because individuals are aware of their visibility and internalize their own subjection: “He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection” (1995: 203). The power of surveillance is not just in the state’s ability to surveil but in the self-surveillance of a society’s population. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 44 (
#expands, via linked claim)
A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation. So it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behaviour, the madman to calm, the worker to work, the schoolboy to application, the patient to the observation of the regulations. Bentham was surprised that panoptic institutions could be so light: there were no more bars, no more chains, no more heavy locks; all that was needed was that the separations should be clear and the openings well arranged. … He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Citizen vigilance is required because authorities cannot police everything — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1291; Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315; Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 44 (+1 more)
Related
- Citizen vigilance is required because authorities cannot police everything (similarity 0.84)
- Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force (similarity 0.83)
- Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing (similarity 0.83)
- Surveillance of the whole population works without coercion and without being in the law (similarity 0.80)
- Workers in new bureaucracies become their own auditors under internalized surveillance (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Citizen vigilance is required because authorities cannot police everything
#corroborates(0.95) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1291 - Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing
#expands(0.85) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 44 - Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force
#exemplifies(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315 - Complete surveillance requires those watched to begin monitoring themselves.
#exemplifies(0.75)