ABSTRACT
Here I want to show through an historical rather than analytic sketch how the formidable works of Weber and Foucault may be considered in terms of their convergence upon a single question, namely, what are the techniques by which humankind has subjected itself to the rational discipline of the applied human sciences (law, medicine, economics, education, and administration)? Clearly, it is not possible to pursue this question in the same historical and comparative detail to be found in either the Weberian corpus or in Foucault’s recent archaeological studies. Rather, it will be argued that certain developments in Foucault’s studies of the disciplinary society (1979a; 1979b) may complement Weber’s formal analysis of the modern bureaucratic state and economy —despite Foucault’s different conception of social rationality. Thus, the formal analytic and historical features of Weber’s account of the bureaucratic state and economy may be related to Foucault’s analysis of the discursive production of the human sciences of government, economics and social policy and to the concomitant regimentation of docile bodies under the disciplines of the prison, the workhouse and the factory. Despite Foucault’s critical stance on the Marxist theory of state power, we cannot overlook Marx’s attention (as well as that of more recent social historians) to the rise of factory discipline since this is an essential presupposition in the theory of discipline and power espoused both by Foucault and Weber. An historical sketch of the struggle over the work process, labour discipline, Taylorism and the bureaucratization of controls backed ultimately by the State which also guarantees rights to work, health and education, is necessary to understand how labour is rendered docile in the disciplinary culture of the therapeutic state (Miller and Neussus 1979; Hirsch 1979).
