Governmentality is a social theory coined by Michel Foucault that studies the practices of governments and their effects on people. It includes the technologies of power, self, and market, which aim to develop positive attitudes and attributes, self-control, and consumer behavior. These technologies can overlap and establish the roles of government and the governed in society.
The term governmentality is a combination of the words govern and mentality, and is often referred to as “the art of government” or governing. It is a concept studied in the social sciences, a social theory attributed to Michel Foucault, a French philosopher. It includes the practices of governments and their effects on the people who are governed. However, governmentality should not be confused with the mere act of governing, at least not strictly speaking, because it also includes how people govern or behave themselves, as well as how these two issues intertwine.
Foucault coined the term governmentality and continued to expand it during the last decade of his life. He died in 1984. It was in lectures during the late 1970s and early 1980s that he established his theory of governmentality as the basis for determining the subject matter of government practices in a given society and the personal government of its citizens and the interaction of the two.
Foucault gave a lecture in the late 1970s which bore the title “Governmentality” or Gouvernementalité, in French. Related works created a stir and the concept became more popular across academia. The translated text of the lecture as well as many other written works by Foucault and other scholars and an interview with Foucault were contained in the book The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality edited by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller.
There are several useful terms to help further define the concept of governmentality. The technologies of power, the technologies of the self and the technologies of the market are the main points of interest. Power technologies are the resources used to help develop good behavior with the idea of creating positive attitudes and attributes while trying to avoid negative ones.
The technologies of the self revolve around the ability of individuals to control themselves and therefore to govern themselves. This means limiting one’s negative behaviors while promoting positive behaviors because of personal and social benefit rather than the rule of law.
Included in the Technologies of the Self are empowerment, health-consciousness, normalization, and self-esteem. Empowerment means personal responsibility, and health-consciousness is another aspect of it, as people are expected to live in health. Both are for personal and social benefit and without government dependency. Normalization, in its simplest sense, means living according to established norms. Self-esteem means self-empowerment, but this is based on a well-deserved self-respect through continuous self-evaluation, personal discipline and self-improvement.
The Market Technologies concept is described as being “governed” into buying both desired and necessary things due to psychological manipulation and self-identity based on the types of items people buy. Clearly, each of the technologies represented in the concept of governmentality can work together or even overlap at times, helping to establish the roles of both government and the governed in a particular society.
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