ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the relationship between Foucaultian conceptions of government, the more or less rational attempts to conduct conduct, with particular reference to issues of crime control. It attempts to clarify the meanings of, and relations between, the key concepts of governmentality and sovereignty. The main concerns of the policymakers were seen to be the attempt to control the lives of the poor and working classes and other subordinated groups and make the world safe for well-heeled neighbourhoods and populations, even at the expense of creating physical and symbolic barriers between the neighbourhoods of the poor and the better off. The official state police mandate to maintain a transcendent sovereign control of, and protection within, public spaces for the generality of citizens interacted uneasily with a complex agenda of government by organizations and networks within a politically well resourced and well connected minority.
