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the PoWer of goverNMeNtaLIty aNd MIS-goverNaNCe IN SeLeCted afrICaN StateS
tshishonga, N.S.*
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa Orcid: 0000-0002-4918-3552.
Mafema, e.d
Ngoma Research Agency, Durban, South Africa. Orcid: 0009-0006-6716-356X *Correspondence: Tshishinha@ukzn.ac.za
abstract
Modern states exist to exercise legitimate power bestowed on them through democratic elections. One such mechanism of governance is governmentality as espoused by Foucault. The theory of governmentality is based on power and how power is used to control citizens to make them governable. The Foucauldian concept of governmentality embraces laws and control mechanisms for people to self-regulate for fear of punishment. This paper is concerned about how African state governments use or abuse governmentality to control and manipulate citizens through responsibilisation. The paper argues that state power often consolidates Rousseau’s social contract theory as one of the controlling measures. One of the roles of government is to create laws that bind all citizens; however, governmentality is exercised in degrees that border on weak and strong states in Africa. Egypt, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe are selected as case studies to demonstrate how governmentality theory is applied to suppress or uplift people. The paper found that under governmentality the selected states are experiencing authoritarian rule.
Keywords: 1; governmentality, 2; misgovernance, 3; power, 4; social contract, 5; suppression,
Introduction
Globally governments use governmentality to suppress their citizens and those who reside in their countries using laws as a legitimate way of control. This paper applies the theory of governmentality, and its use through social contracts, and its manifestations in Egypt, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. The paper focuses on how governmentality is used and abused in various nations as a form of governance.
The selected countries use Foucault’s theory of governmentality to innovatively govern their citizens. The term ‘governmentality’, coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault, describes how governments control people and shape citizen behaviour (Gürkan 2018).
Maria (2021) posits that Foucault’s theory exposes how governmentality is applied to conduct regulation and self- regulation form the basis of social authority. Additionally, governments use governmentality to control and shape citizen behaviour (Gurkan 2018). For Maria (2021) the modern form of government is defined by a connection between methods that ensure coercion and how free people voluntarily alter or construct themselves, rather than by the state invading people’s rights.
Foucault created the concept of governmentality in the late 1970s, primarily through his lectures at the Collège de France (Triantafillou 2022). It encompasses the organised procedures, mentalities, rationalities, and strategies used to regulate individuals and populations. For Larsson (2020) the word governmentality combines the terms ‘government’ and ‘rationality’, emphasising that governance encompasses more than just state politics, including multiple kinds of societal control and self- government.
Foucault’s theory has since evolved from sovereign power to a more subtle type of power that acts through knowledge and social practices (Lorenzini 2023). Governmentality theory, established by Foucault, offers a unique and perceptive perspective on the intricate relationships between power, knowledge, and the methods used to govern individuals and populations. Foucault’s conceptualisation of governmentality contradicts the traditional notion of power as a top-down, repressive force, emphasising how power acts through the production of subjects and the shaping of individual behaviour.
At the heart of Foucault’s governmentality theory is the idea that power is not merely imposed from above, but rather diffused throughout society, infiltrating how people interpret and govern themselves. Foucault contended that knowledge and power are intrinsically intertwined, with some ‘global unitary knowledge’ institutionalised and legitimised while others are disqualified and subjugated. Goldingay (2020), asserts that Foucault’s work on governmentality has significant ramifications for our understanding of social work practice and the empowerment of marginalised individuals and communities.
Foucault’s theory of governmentality is relevant for various reasons, most notably in comprehending modern governance and power relations. Van Rensburg et al. (2016) state that governmentality shifts focus from
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