Public executions failed to frighten the people and so reformers demanded their abolition
Evidence
Yet out of the ceremony of the public execution, out of that uncertain festival in which violence was instantaneously reversible, it was this solidarity much more than the sovereign power that was likely to emerge with redoubled strength. The reformers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were not to forget that, in the last resort, the executions did not, in fact, frighten the people. One of their first cries was to demand their abolition. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 118
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Public punishment was abolished because it inflamed crowds rather than teaching them. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 397; Public executions produced disorder rather than deterrence for the crowd — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 118; Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 489 (+3 more)
Related
- Public executions produced disorder rather than deterrence for the crowd (similarity 0.90)
- Public punishment was abolished because it inflamed crowds rather than teaching them. (similarity 0.87)
- Execution rituals forged solidarity between the people and petty offenders against power (similarity 0.84)
- Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence (similarity 0.83)
- Rather than displaying sovereign power, executions staged a reversible duel between executioner and people (similarity 0.82)
- Punishment’s primary audience is the non-criminal public, not the offender (similarity 0.82)
- Public execution reactivates injured sovereign power rather than restoring justice. (similarity 0.82)
- Public execution functions as a political ritual of power, not mere justice. (similarity 0.80)
- Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance (similarity 0.80)
- Execution rituals were explicitly military displays of armed justice. (similarity 0.80)
- Public executions let condemned criminals reversibly become heroes who mock authority (similarity 0.79)
- The executioner personified the sovereign’s answering violence against the criminal. (similarity 0.79)
- Reformers shifted punishment’s aim from expiation to prevention (similarity 0.79)
- Reformers sought to redistribute punitive power throughout the whole social body. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence
#expands(0.82) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 125 - Reformers shifted punishment’s aim from expiation to prevention
#expands(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 204 - Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance
#complicates(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 489 - Execution rituals forged solidarity between the people and petty offenders against power
#responds-to(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 118