Sovereign Power, Disciplinary Power and Biopower: How to Make Sense of Foucault's Conceptualization of Power Mechanisms?

Özet

Öz Power is one of the key concepts in the works of Michel Foucault. Foucault traced the development of various power mechanisms across the modern period so as to shed light on the techniques of domination which human beings were subject to. By focusing on sovereign authority, disciplinary mechanisms and biopolitics, he introduced several conceptualizations to illustrate the operation of power in modern western societies. Sovereign, disciplinary and biopower emerged at different historical junctures and thereby carry unique characteristics and fulfil different functions. As the latest variant among the three, biopower separates itself from its analogues with its positive and productive feature. Biopower acts a formative force with regards to the administration of societies in the west and constitutes a source of power that is essential for the protection and promotion of certain forms of life. Despite biopower’s determinative influence over the social body, it does not render sovereign and disciplinary powers redundant. As shown in this work through Foucault’s prism, sovereign and disciplinary power mechanisms still fulfil key functions in the pursuit of biopolitical objectives. Hence, in modern societies these three forms of power mechanisms act as complementary instruments in the administration of populations.