The State as a Janus-Faced Structure: Anti-Paternalism and Pastoral Power

Year 2020, , 387 - 407, 15.09.2020

Fehmi Ünsalan

https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.788597

Abstract

The claim that “the good accompanies every political action” stands out as one of the basic claims of political philosophy. In this sense, every political action brings along the knowledge of the good, that is, the inclination towards the knowledge of the good life or the good society. It is possible to claim that there is a kind of a relationship directing the deeds of the individual as much as the validity of consideration of the government, in this context, the state as a way of domination in itself. In this study, starting from the relationship between paternal and pastoral powers, it will be attempted to show that the state has an invariable dual power structure. The relationship between the paternalist power technique with more state claims and the pastoral technique with less state claims will be tried to be laid on the evaluations of John Locke, Michel Foucault and Gerald Dworkin.

Keywords

State, Paternal Power, Pastoral Power, John Locke, Michel Foucault

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