PROJECT IN

INTRODUCTION TO
PHILOSOPHY
Michel Foucault
“Theory of power”

Submitted by: Angelika Daniel

Submitted to: Mrs. Marivin Caguioa
 INTRODUCTION

Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers, France on May 15, 1926. He became academically
established during the 1960s, holding a series of positions at French universities, before his
election in 1969 to the ultra-prestigious Collège de France, where he was became the Professor of
the History of Systems of Thought until he died. He was a founder of the Groupe d’information
sur les prisons and often protested on behalf of marginalized groups. Foucault has a lot of theories.
One of this is the theory of power.

He has been hugely influential in shaping understandings of power, leading away from the
analysis of actors who use power as an instrument of coercion, and even away from the discreet
structures in which those actors operate, toward the idea that ‘power is everywhere’, diffused and
embodied in discourse, knowledge and ‘regimes of truth’.Power for Foucault is what makes us
what we are. Foucault challenges the idea that power is wielded by people or groups by way of
‘episodic’ or ‘sovereign’ acts of domination or coercion, seeing it instead as dispersed and
pervasive.

In our society, we experience poverty because of politicians who corrupt the money of the
people. As I noticed, in 12 or more senators there is always a house breaker that will commit
bulgary or corruption. Corruption is the misused of power by elected politician or appointed civil
servant that is only for private gain. Also, Corruption is the misused of entrusted power by heritage,
education, marriage, election, appointment or whatever else. In the Philippines, High corruption
levels severely restrict the efficiency of business operating.

Corruption is social evil where the quality of service is lost for the unaccounted benefit.
Corruption has a types, this are the corruption in judiciary, business corruption, political
corruption, corruption in government, corruption in law enforcement, corruption in education,
health care system and administrative corruption (Mind Controversy,2017)

Corruption in judiciary is one of the potent system to protect the constitution of a nation
and safeguard system the citizens. But due to unlimited powers, the judges in the courts are
susceptible to corruption. This tend to destroy the justice and judiciary support to a person or
society as a whole. The common types pf corruption judiciary are delayed justice, selective justice,
voluntary harassment, and Scope for misuse and misbehavior. Furthermore, delayed justice is the
cases that has been denied or the cases that had been closed fast are dragged for prolonged periods.
On the other hand, selective justice is a funny way of misused of justice system. This occur when
there are many cases that is pending. They take up cases instantly to give bail or other reliefs to
the rich and famous people. Then, the voluntary harassment is occurring when the people in the
system have a political or religious inclination (Mind Controversy, 2017). While the Scope for
misuse and misbehavior, in some cases judicial people try to relieve a person from punishments
by taking bribes. This is not a secret and the use of right channel helps one to achieve that unless
there is no public glare.

Moreover, Business Corruption base on my understanding, it is the corruption that

happening in the workplace. Business people opt for corruption for them to get more income. They
can do so by forcing the government to make some laws in their favor. Other way is to avoid
quality control so as to produce to sub-standard goods and save money. Like for instances, in the
United States of America as per the Affordable Care Act, everyone needs to have a health
insurance. They need to implement this law to support insurances companies.

However, political corruption is the worst case of moral corruption. This often happen
during campaign elections. Some political parties do it in few ways like, appease people of freebies
or subsidies, appease minorities, and they buy votes & mandate. If those people who wins using
this kind of method, it will result to a bad government.

On the other hand, Corruption in government is the scams, awarding contracts to their
friends etc. they continue doing this till the end of their term. The media can easily track this kind
of corruption and they will let he public to know it. While the corruption in government is
happening usually in police departments. This form of corruption is present in almost all the
countries. Some of the police authorities accept bribes and help destroy the evidence.

In addition, Administrative corruption is similar to the government corruption but it is

spread till the lower levels among the public servants. The officers or servants involve in bribery
to perform their duties towards to common public

In connection with the theory of power of Foucault, they used power to do bad things that
will benefit only themselves. This show that people that have a higher position often misused their
power for their own benefits.
 CONCEPTUAL PARADIGM

Biopower

Disciplinary
Power
Power
Sovereign
Power
Pastoral
Power
Figure 1. Michel Foucault Theory of Power

According to Michel Foucault, Power is not an institution, and not a structure: neither is it
a certain strength we are endowed with. It is the name that one attributes to a complex strategically
in a particular society. Power in not a thing but a relation. It is the relation of the officials to their
subordinates, whether it is good or bad. We Humans live in a Web of Power-Relations. Wherein
the persons that is in the middle of the web has the power to control everyone around him/her.
Power operates at the most micro levels of social relations. Power is omnipresent at every level of
the social body.

Furthermore, power is not simply a property of the state. Power is not something that is
exclusively localized in government and the state. Rather power is exercised throughout the social
body. Power is not simply repressive but it is productive. Everyone is the product of power. This
is because if there is no leader the world will be a totally messed. Where there is power, there is
resistance. also there is no glory in punishing unless if that person is punishable. In its function,
the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing and educating.
 Moreover, there are four types of power. This is the biopower, Disciplinary power,
sovereign power, and pastoral power. Biopower is a technology which appear in the eighteenth
century for managing population. It appears to manage the births, death, reproduction and illnesses
of a population. Biopower help a lot to control the population. While, Disciplinary Power is a
mechanism of power which regulates the behavior of individuals in the social body. Foucault
specifies that when he speaks of ‘disciplinary society’ he does not mean a disciplined society. On
the other hand, Sovereign Power involves the obedience to the law of the king or central authority
figure. Then lastly, the pastoral power comes from the idea of politically organizing the day to
day conduct of the population which is borrowed from the metaphor of the care of a shepherd for
his flock and originated in Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Hebrew cultures.

CONCLUSION

On my own understanding about the theory of power by Michel Foucault, Power is make
because it is needed to have a good society. Power is important for every authorities because if
they don’t have the power to control everyone no one will obey them. Power has a good result in
the society. But there is some authorities who misused the power they have for their own benefits.
They often do corruption to get a higher income. Some other do corruption to escaped the bad
things they’ve done. They give money to the police or other authorities for them to set free from
the bad thing they’ve done on someone. This often do by the High profile person for them not to
destroy there image.
REFERENCE

Mind Controversy ( 2018). Retrieved from

https://www.mindcontroversy.com/types-corruption-consequences/ October 10, 2019

Morris, S. (2011). Forms of Corruption. Retrieved From

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227383753. October 13, 2019

Transparency International (2018). What is Corruption. Retrieved from,

https://www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption. October 09, 2019

Foucault: power is everywhere. Retrieved from

https://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/foucault-power-is-everywhere/ October 09,

2019

Kelly, M. (2016). Michel Foucault. Internet Encyclopedia of the Philosophy. Retrieved from,

https://www.iep.utm.edu/foucault/ October 10, 2019

https://www.slideshare.net/FarijulBari/foucault-by-farij