ABSTRACT
There are many ways of conceptualizing the state: some explain it through its operations, existence and institutions. In Foucault’s writing we encounter a concept borrowed from Bentham: the metaphor for the state is the panopticon. This word is derived from ancient Greek for “all” (pan) and “view” (opticon). According to this approach institutions create a unique order in society. A massive building in the form of a ring encircles a central tower. It contains small cells, each with two windows, one looking outward and the other looking in, one letting light in from outside, the other making the prisoner visible to those in the tower. This is the modern institution of control, with the essence of cell life being full-time control. To see and to be seen in the light have different meanings, given that all are visible from the tower, which appears as scanning everyone and everything. The imprisonment is real, but the view and image created are illusions of power; it is a simple and uniform image. In other words, our view of the individual changes when he/she is locked in a health care, housing or education institution “cell.” The essence of locking people up is not the presentation of “reality” but the securing of state control, of legitimizing power. 1 The power of the state exists in our lives as long as individuals are visible through the institutions of power. As Michel Foucault states, “The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogeneous effects of power.” 2
