Sovereignty Versus Government

It is important to distinguish between two types of power relationships that are relevant to the modern state.

Sovereignty operates according to the common conception of power.  It works by means of the law, in particular by determining to whom and in what circumstances the law applies, and the threat of violence.  The aim of sovereignty is best understood in terms of the character of the sovereign, in whose hands rest the application of the law and the use of "legitimate" violence.  The rule of the sovereign derives primarily from territorial acquisition, and its aim is in maintaining or strengthening its claim to that territory, with the ultimate goal of exploiting its resources and inhabitants for personal enrichment.  Thus, another way of understanding sovereignty is the ability to dispose of the resources within a certain domain.

Government, in contrast, utilizes a less centralized and coercive form of power, resembling more closely the characteristics outlined in the previous post.  While sovereignty is immediately self-serving and only encounters people as objects of secondary importance, government considers as an end to itself the management of people, as subjects (conscious beings) and populations.  Likewise, in contrast to sovereign power, which is primarily restrictive and grounded in the taking away of life, government is concerned with its preservation and cultivation.  


Government works by way of tactics (including strategic use of the law), and employs more subtle and diffuse forms of power.  These mechanisms of power may penetrate each individual by molding consciousness, creating identities, and instilling bodily dispositions.  At the other extreme, people are  managed as populations, through the use of statistics, demography, and the application of human sciences.


A final note:  I take great care to distinguish between the state, which is simply an institutional apparatus, and government as an activity that is directed toward the cultivation of life and productivity.  This distinction will become more significant later.