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Governmentality and the History of Statistical Reason University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1997 Governmentality and the history of statistical reason Erik BarrettHakanson The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation BarrettHakanson, Erik, "Governmentality and the history of statistical reason" (1997). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 5256. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5256 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY The University of IM IO P ^T AINLA. Permission is granted by the author to reproduce this material in its entirety, provided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. ** Please check "Yes" or "No" and provide signature ** Yes, I grant permission No, I do not grant permission Author's Signatun Date r Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's explicit consent. Governmentality and the History of Statistical Reason By Erik BarrettHakanson B.A. Lewis and Clark College, 1991 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts The University of Montana 1997 Approved by: Dean, Graduate School 12- '< 1 Date UMI Number: EP40720 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there-are missing pages-, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI OjMertatkin PettaN ng UMI EP40720 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQ uest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuesf ProQ uest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 BarrettHakanson, ErikK.. December 1997 Political Science Governmentality and the History of Statistical Reason (203 pp.) Director: Bill Chaloupka Governmentality is the late Michel Foucault's neologism for governmental rationality. By rationality Foucault meant the particular way in which an object or process is conceived and from this the logic by which it is acted upon. The art of government is the application of rationality in a specified way through practical techniques and principles upon objects and process constituted as political by such rationality. I use these concepts of governmentality and the art of government to examine the history of statistical thought and practice. From this examination I illustrate the historical forms assumed by statistical reason and its interaction and relationship with the historical forms assumed by the art of government. Through this examination I show statistics to be a technology of government. The goal of this paper is to trace, in a general way, the transformations that have occurred in governmental and statistical reason. I describe the role of statistics in the transition from an essentialist epistemology to a non- essentialist, relational or systems based formulation of objective rational knowledge. It is my thesis that the development of theories of complex dynamic systems understood explicitly as cybernetic information processing systems constitutes a fundamental shift in how process and change are understood. I argue that such theories constitute the basis of a new way of conceiving of the objects of government and hence is leading to new ways of governing them, a new art of government. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1- INTRODUCTION ..................................... 1 2. GOVERNMENTALITY AND THE ART OF GOVERNMENT .... 14 Emergence of the Art of Government The Physiocrats and the end of Reason of State 3. Know Your S o c i e t y ............................... 45 A New Art of Government, The beginning of Liberalism The Moral Sciences and the Natural Laws of Society Statistics Become Natural I: The Rationalization of Probability Statistics Become Natural II: Revealing _the Norm Natural Laws become statistical Statistical Autonomy: The Derationalization of Determinism Vital Correlations and Functionalism Vitalism, Mechanism and the New Arts of Government 4. Decline of the Norm and the Rise of Control . Ill The Refinement of Equilibrium Decline of Equilibrium 5. The Emergence of Control: Operations Research and a New Object of Government........................ 140 Information Cybernetics Systems Reformulated 6. Conclusion ....................................... 187 Chapter 1: Introduction Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality is a useful way to analyze phenomena that seem political on their face yet prove difficult to specify precisely how they produce their political effects. In the late twentieth century, information is just such a phenomena. Information is a term that elicits numerous definitions and explanations. It is widely recognized that information is somehow involved in the current political order. Names attempting to capture this new order such as "information age," "post-industrialism" or "global society" are thrown around with abandon. Such conceptions, however, tend to describe information as some sort of new commodity or the result of a new social process without attempting to delve into what this process might be or what sort of exchange system might be implied by this new commodity. I suggest that information constitutes more than just a new commodity. It is a new way of conceiving of the dynamics of complex processes such as society. It is also a technical knowledge which allows what Foucault calls the art of government to proceed in new ways according to this new conception of society. Further, this new conception and these new political practices are intimately linked with statistics. In this paper I attempt to illustrate this link by showing the intimate relationship between the thought and practice of statistics and that of government. Through illustrating the history of this relationship I arrive at the 1 thesis that a new mode of governing is, in fact, emerging that takes as its object a new formulation of society as a complex information processing system. This transition can be seen through an analysis of the evolution of the art of government, especially in terms of the evolution of statistical reason. Foucault's concept of the art of government takes a wide view of what constitutes the political. This is because many different disciplines with many different objects of analysis are involved in elucidating the world and producing knowledge about it. Governing is an activity that requires knowledge and thus has a close relationship to its production. This is perhaps not so controversial. It is Foucault's particular way of conceiving the relationship between knowledge and governing, however, which has generated intense interest and criticism. Foucault's thought is a product of the post World War II emergence of dynamic systems in which the conception of things, ideas or processes linked to unchanging and essential natures has given way to conceptions of things, ideas and processes as relational, contextual and contingent. This includes the relationship between government and the production of knowledge. For Foucault, the link between knowledge and governing is a two way street. The activity of governing is implicated in ways of knowing because ways of knowing implicate ways of governing. The production of rational knowledge, no matter the discipline, is therefore a political act. From a critical point of view this perspective too is not so scandalous. But for Foucault, the link between governing, knowledge and rationality is not to be understood in terms of the ideological uses to which rational knowledge may be put, the idea of the illegitimate use of legitimate knowledge. The link is much deeper and more complex than that. For Foucault, there is no objective ground to judge legitimacy. Rather legitimacy is the result of an agonal contest. Not only a contest of wills, but a contest of evolution an effect of the continuous change in the art of government. For legitimacy is linked not only to individual thinkers but the larger system of thought within which individuals and their own thought processes exist. By art of government Foucault means the application of practical techniques and principles rationally applied to rationally understood objects for the purpose of affecting this object in a specified way. It also refers to the reflection upon the specific strategies and techniques by both those who implement them and those who are the targets of them.1 The art of government is unique from other historical forms of rule in its interrelationship with knowledge. Government as an art began to emerge when knowledge ceased to be solely the effect of religious interpretation and became connected to investigation into and experimentation upon the material world. That is, the art of government emerged 1 Michel Foucault, "Governmentality," in Foucault Effect; Studies
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