1. BY: Vanessa Tannous
TOPICS:
1. The Disciplinary and Punitive
State
2. Democracy and its Discontents
3. Citizenship and Inequality
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OVERVEIW:
• Modern State and Power:
Weber and Foucault
• Instilling the disciplinary
society
• Industrial discipline
• Prisons and society
• Expanding the penal state
3. “The prison, the
factory and the
school, like the
army, are places
where they system
can project its
conception of the
disciplinary society
in the reformed
criminal, the good
workers, student,
loyal soldier and
committed citizen”
(O'Neill, 1986)
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4. IMAGE 4
• School is
perhaps the
most influential
factor for
children,
instilling in
them the values
of majority
society from a
young age
5. IMAGE 5
• “...worker discipline
was the main
ingredient aimed at
improving the moral
habits of the
labouring poor, to
make them orderly,
punctual, responsible
and temperate”.
(O’Neill, 1986, pp. 47)
The Taylorist System was created
during the industrial revolution
around the belief that workers were
lazy
6. “To punish less, perhaps; but certainly to
punish better.”
(Foucault, 1975)
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7. “Its like a trash receptacle, prisoners have
been thrown away like trash. The
conditions are subhuman. Go ahead, write
that down: subhuman”
- Chief of Sao Paolo’s third police
precinct, cited in Waquant (2008)
8. IMAGE 1
http://vectorportal.deviantart.com/art/Fight-The-Power-Sticker-208773360
Deviant Art, accessed through Google images. 21/5/14
IMAGE 2
https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1438&bih=685&q=JAIL&oq=JAI
L&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1594.1994.0.2235.4.4.0.0.0.0.217.452.2j1j1.4.0....0...1ac.1.44.img..1.3.228.DSNGkxPG-
JE#facrc=_&imgdii=e5zUf8DTe64VnM%3A%3BQBxwk9Dw6MQJuM%3Be5zUf8DTe64VnM%3A&imgrc=e5zUf8DTe64
VnM%253A%3BKWWpOowTspa_2M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ubfriends.org%252Fwp-
content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F04%252Fjail.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ubfriends.org%252F2012%252
F04%252F19%252Fin-jail-charged-with-sexual-assault%252F%3B1620%3B1185
21/5/14
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http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asia/2012-03-23/australian-police-crack-child-exploitation-ring/533644
ABC Radio, accessed through Google images, 21/5/14
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http://herecomesgab.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/teachers-classroom-questions.html
The Teaching World, accessed through Google images, 21/5/14
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http://theoldmotor.com/?tag=automobile-factories&paged=9
The Old Motor, accessed through Google images, 21/5/14
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http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/tough-limits-after-release/story-e6freooo-1111113263802
Courier Mail, accessed through Google Images, 22/5/14
9. Foucault, M. (1975) ‘Discipline and Punish: The Birth
of the Prison’
Loewenstein, A. (2013) ‘Indigenous incarceration rates
are a national shame’, The Guardian, 1 November 2013
O’Neill, J. (1986) ‘The Disciplinary Society: From
Weber to Foucault’, The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 37, no.
1, pp. 42-60
10. IMAGE 1
OVERVIEW:
• Theories of democracy
• A democratic deficit?
• Conditions for democracy
•Can democracy be
globalised?
•Are liberal democracies
democratic?
15. “The difference between a democracy and
a dictatorship is that in a democracy you
vote first and take orders later; in a
dictatorship you don’t have to waste your
time voting.”
- Charles Bukowski
16. IMAGE 1
http://apocalypsecometh.com/voting/
Apocalypse Cometh, accessed through Google Images, 23/5/14
IMAGE 2
http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31a.htm
Happier abroad, accessed through Google images, 23/5/14
IMAGE 3
http://throughablogdarkly.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/compulsory-
voting.html
Through a blog darkly, accessed through Google images, 23/5/14
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http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/06/tiananmen-square-then-
and-now/100311/
The Atlantic, accessed through Google images, 24/5/14
17. Huntington, S. (1986) Liberating Theory, pp. 67
Kristol, I (1978) Two Cheers for Capitalism
Tay, W.S. and So A.Y. (2012) ‘Politics’, Handbook
of contemporary China, Singapore: World Scientific
Publishing
18. IMAGE 1
OVERVIEW:
• Classical views of
citizenship
• Critiquing citizenship
• Australia: The Great
Classless Society
• Capital and inequality
• Redressing inequality
20. “We may all be human, but humanity has
always despised and degraded some of its parts.
Humanity is not one...Human rights...do not
belong to humans; they help us construct who
and how one becomes human”
(Costas Douzinas 2009)
22. IMAGE 4
Thomas Piketty (2014):
1. The rich get richer faster than the
economy can grow
2. Income inequality is likely to get
worse
3. Inequality will not self correct
4. Top managers: no evidence that
higher wages lead to more
productivity
5. Balancing the books makes matters
worse
24. IMAGE 1
http://deltawomen.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/does-gender-inequality-fuel.html
Delta Women, accessed therough Google images, 24/5/14
IMAGE 2
http://imgarcade.com/1/rights-and-responsibilities-of-citizens/
Rights and responsibilities of citizens, accessed through Google images, 25/5/14
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http://muslimvillage.com/forums/topic/14593-mate-its-just-not-on-parliament-to-ban-
mate/
Muslim viliage.com, accessed through Google images, 25/5/14
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Los Angeles Review of Books, accessed through Google images, 25/5/14
IMAGE 5
http://www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/08/05/wealth-inequality-in-uk-now-equal-to-
nigeria-un-report/
Scriptonite daily, accessed through Google images, 26/5/14
Douzinas, C. (2009)
Hinweis der Redaktion
There are many viewpoints from which we can assess modern discipline and punishment. John O’Neill, for instance has compared the works of Max Weber and Michel Foucault. The comparison between these two different sociologists is interesting in the sense that both are concerned with the ways in which individuals adjust their behaviour because they have instilled the notion of rational discipline within themselves. Foucault in particular has stated that we tend to police ourselves due to the belief that we are continually watched by the state which has the power to punish for wrongdoing.
Perhaps the reason that we police ourselves is rooted in the fact that we have been taught discipline from a young age. Children are told, first at home by their parents, and then at school by their teachers, if you do the wrong thing, you will be punished. School is arguably the more important of the two, as it instils in children the values of majority society. This can be seen as an internalisation of the knowledge that there is a right way of behaving, as well as a wrong way and that there will be consequences for each. Webers statement that the state controls the legitimate means of force means that the state is able to control the individuals living under it by making rules on how they should behave.
During the industrial revolution workers were seen by the bourgeoisie as inefficient, unproductive and lazy. The bourgeoisie thus trained them in what they thought was appropriate behaviour. The Taylorist system was created around the belief that workers were lazy and soon began to influence trade unions and worker struggles. Such implementations demonstrate how the state attempted, as it still does today, to control individuals’ behaviours in order to benefit the economy. There were many ways introduced to discipline workers – fines, the suppression of leisure activities, and the use of bells. Interestingly, the use of bells is still prominent today in schools, both as an alert and, less directly, as a tool of discipline.
Imprisonment, as a form of punishment has emerged as the main form in modern times due to the medieval forms such as torture and capital punishment becoming outdated in many nations, with the most notable exception being the USA. Foucault has referred to prison as the modern way of disciplining society. Because the role of a disciplinary society is to instil a sense of fear of wrongdoing due to the consequences of such behaviour, this has been seen as the role of prisons in society. The common view is that prisoners cannot be reformed, thus prison acts a deterrent for the rest of society, seen as a punishment for breaking the law.
The ‘prison industrial complex’ is a term used to describe the imprisonment of an ever growing number of people, particularly in the US. Such a rise in the number of prisoners sends a message that reform is not possible and that it is also not preferred. It has been argued that specific groups of people in society are targeted more than others when it comes to surveillance and imprisonment. In Australia for example, “Aboriginal levels of incarceration in Australian prisons have never been higher... over 40% of all adult Western Australian prisoners are Aboriginal...” (Loewenstein, 2013).
The principle of democracy comes from the idea that the people, as opposed to the minority aristocratic class, rule. Despite this, there are many questions about who the people are, what rule means, and how rule can be achieved. With migration, who can rule becomes even more ambiguous as political rights, such as the right to vote, are normally confined to citizens. The three main forms of democracy are representative democracy, participatory democracy, and elite democracy. The most prominent system of democracy is the representative system – although there have been many questions about just how democratic this system is.
Many citizens of the Western world are gradually becoming disinterested in politics. While the right to vote is still being fought for in some parts of the world, particularly for minorities, it is taken for granted in the Western world. With Australia being the only liberal democracy where voting is compulsory, many people in countries such as the US and the UK choose not to vote. This would also be the case in Australia if voting was optional : “effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and non-involvement on the part of some individuals and groups” (Huntington, 1986, pp. 67).
It is generally recognised that there are specific conditions that need to present for democracy to be successful. Such conditions are thought to be conducive with capitalism, hence the reason that the two usually go hand in hand. David Held (1996) acknowledges five conditions: free and fair elections with every citizens vote having equal weight, a suffrage which embraces all citizens irrespective of distinctions such as race, class and sex, freedom of conscience, information and expression, the right of all adults to oppose their government, and associational autonomy – the right to form independent social movements and political groups.
On a global scale, there is a very uneven spread of democracy. While there have been protests in non-democratic countries fighting for democracy and the freedoms that come with it, such movements have not achieved the desired goal. An example of this is the Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989 which had a tragic effect on the lives of many people, and yet still changes have not been implemented. The widely held view is that “Western liberal democracy encounters a big challenge in China as long as China’s economy, which is being pushed forward by the CPC’s authoritarian rule and use of nationalism, continues to be strong” (Tay and So, 2012, pp. 42).
In recent times, the question of whether liberal democracies are actually democratic has emerged. One argument that has been put forward is that democracy is just a dictatorship with a different form and a different name. This view is based on the fact that most democratic systems do not adequately reflect the views of average citizens, except when citizens elect their representatives. However, because voting is not compulsory in any liberal democracy except Australia, many citizens of the Western world are not being adequately represented. Another argument is that politicians fight only for the rights of the bourgeoisie, and thus average citizens are left behind in a country that was said to be democratic.
Marshall developed his idea of citizenship in 1940’s Britain. This mode of citizenship has been heavily criticised by feminists, anti-racists, gay rights activists, and similar social campaigners for being too narrowly based on the perspectives of white, straight men. Marshall stated that citizenship is based on the relationship between the state and individuals living within that state, hence the reason many activists have been becoming increasingly frustrated with this narrow view on what being a citizen should look like and who counts as a citizen. There are three types of rights: political, civil and social.
Issues with citizenship arise when we begin to categorise citizens on a rights-based approach. There will always be a person or group of people who is not covered by at least one or more of these rights. This can be due to many reasons such as: they are not citizens of the state, they have lost their rights in some way, or they do not have the ability or opportunity to gain the same level of rights as other groups in society, for example, refugees. Human rights have been one way of addressing these issues, however, as Douzinas states, humanity does not provide us with any more protection than Marshalls set of rights does.
Marshall’s view is that a just society is an equal society, and Australia has used this theme of equality and made it central to ideas of Australian citizenship. However, when one assesses the history of Australian citizenship, it can be seen that it is based on displacement and dispossession. Despite multicultural ideals, British culture and mentality still dominates. The myth of mateship is another popular Australian ideal that was created in order to create a feeling of equality among citizens, when in actual fact, the term mateship, which was coined during WW1, does not include women or Aboriginals.
According to Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in The Spirit Level, there is a direct link between how unequal a society is and the well-being of its population. Social issues including unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse are due to the growing gap between the rich and poor. In societies where capital is valued and sought after, there are many barriers to gain it – for example, despite levels of ambition and desire for doing well, factors such as race, class, ethnicity and sexuality may mean the desired goal is not reached. The Australian figures for wage disparity are alarming with the top 20 CEOs earning more than 100 times the average wage, with a significant number earning eight-figure salaries.
Inequality and poverty are becoming a reality for many groups, even in the most advanced parts of the Western world. There have been arguments as to whether inequality is a personal matter or if the government should get involved to help redress such disparities within society. There is a view held by some in society that the government makes no real attempt at redressing inequality because it benefits the government as well as the bourgeoisie who can continue to hold and control the wealth. All this then begs the question, what exactly can be done about inequality and poverty?