Surveillance of the whole population works without coercion and without being in the law

Evidence

The organization of an isolated illegality, enclosed in delinquency, would not have been possible without the development of police supervision. General surveillance of the population, ‘silent, mysterious, unperceived vigilance … it is the eye of the government ceaselessly open and watching without distinction over all citizens, yet without subjecting them to any measure of coercion whatever … It does not need to be written into the law’ (Bonneville, 1847, 397–9). … Surveillance of individuals, envisaged by the code of 1810, of ex-convicts and of all those who, having appeared before the courts on serious charges, were legally presumed to represent a new threat to the peace of society. … In their turn, the statisticians and the sociologists have made use of it, long after the police. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 431

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s Bentham/Foucault panopticism thesis — ‘ceaselessly open watching without coercion’ is panoptic logic in 19th-century police form, parallel to paranoia in Discipline & Punish’s later chapter. — connects to: Uncertainty about being watched suffices to make surveillance effective — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 303; Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315; Surveillance of whole populations weakens democracy while failing to prevent terror (+5 more)
• QUESTION: This 1847 Bonneville quote claims surveillance ‘does not need to be written into law’ — worth chasing how informal, unwritten surveillance relates to the formalized panoptic architecture of a telescreen.

Related

• Public authorities cannot police all offences, so citizens must self-monitor (similarity 0.80)
• A surveillance society only becomes complete when those surveilled begin to self-surveil. (similarity 0.79)
• Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing (similarity 0.79)
• Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force (similarity 0.79)
• Surveillance power erodes democracy from within rather than confronting it directly (similarity 0.78)
• The digital panopticon fails to register as surveillance because its subjects feel free (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Surveillance of whole populations weakens democracy while failing to prevent terror #contradicts (0.80)
• Surveillance is administrative power, mostly indirect via information control #expands (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 154
• Mass surveillance based on racial stereotypes weakens democracy without preventing terrorism. #qualifies (0.80)
• Surveillance-based power operates by optics rather than force #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 273
• External surveillance becomes internalized as self-imposed bodily discipline #expands (0.75) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 512
• Anxious citizens welcomed surveillance rather than having it imposed #corroborates (0.75)