Foucault Paper

One of the main differences between sovereign power and disciplinary power is how they punish the individual. In sovereign power, the individual is punished publicly, passionately and violently. For example, the execution of Damiens was made public by having him dragged throughout Paris and violent because his body was filled with hot iron and then quartered (Foucault 3-6). Sovereign power punishes the body and theatrically shows the event to instill fear in the people and how powerful is their king (9). The executioner carries out the punishment based on the knowledge of law, which centralizes power to the king.

Under disciplinary power, punishment is hidden from the public, made quick, and rational (9-10). Foucault uses the time-table at the juvenile reformatory as an example of how regimented and rational disciplinary power can be (6-7). The purpose of punishment is to rehabilitate the individual and produce a person that can function in society (19, 24). Thus the soul is the target under disciplinary power because in order to change the body one must discipline and correct the soul (24-25, 30). Institutions like the psychiatry wards and education that hold micro-physics of power which decentralizes power from one person to many places (26). As a result, technicians like educators and psychiatrists use the corrective power. They base their knowledge of what is normal and what is deviant on scientific knowledge (18).

For the sorority house that I have been observing, they are more disciplinary power than they are sovereign power, however there are elements that have both. The sovereign power is exercised in the form of the national sorority headquarters. Here the rules that each chapter across the country must follow. If the chapter is going out of control or violates any of the rules, the national headquarters will send someone to look at and make recommendations of discipline. The house that I have observed has not had that problem because they uphold the national and house rules strictly. The rules are disciplinary because they ask the girls to conform to an anti-substance, “non lady-like” behavior, and pro-sisterhood and philanthropic stance as one sister mentioned. The president of the house is like a sovereign, in the sense that she is looked up as the girl with power and serves a model of what the “ideal” sister should be. Although there is no true time-table, like Foucault mentions, in the house, the ones of punctuality are heavily enforced, especially for the mandatory meeting. For a sister that has been caught violating any of the house or sorority rules, they will receive a letter from the Standards committee, which enforce the rules. In private, after the meeting, the committee will meet with the sister and discuss what she did and why it was necessary to bring her “to standards.” Punishment is not physical of course because that violates the rules set forth by the national headquarters but rather that attack “the soul.” The soul, in this case, is house points that a sister receives for every event she attends. Foucault mentions that power can act positively as well, granting rewards for those that follow the rules and the points system is a great example of this premise. The sister accumulates house points that can get her the best room in the house. By attending the events, the girls exchange their souls for the biggest or single room in the house.