Civil Service Reform and the Political Culture of Governmentality: Massachusetts 1952-1981

Constitution as Executive Order

“…It is possible to say, for instance, that psychiatry professionalized and disciplined sexuality; sociology inquired into the general laws of society to understand how to harness and control them; management science emerged to study and facilitate the disciplining of the workplace; mass public education socialized and standardized students; advertising and popular culture disciplined desire and consumption in private life. And although the administrative state was itself internally disciplined (Foucault, 1991;Howe, 2001), what object does government itself discipline? What kind of disciplinary institution is it?…”

Introduction

“…This proceeded, not coincidentally, with the growing familiarity with and ongoing publication of more of Foucault's work, especially on governmentality, biopolitics, the body, and emerging forms of power. Particularly notable contributions along these lines are Howe's (2001Howe's ( , 2002 studies of governmentality and administrative law, Beresford's (2003) analyses of budgeting, Eagan's (2006) inquiry into the constitution of citizen-subject through governmental practices (see also Howe, 2003), Catlaw's (2007a) study of the biopolitical constitution of popular sovereignty through representational governing practices, Sementelli's (2009) examination of parrhesia, Bevir's (2010;Bevir & Rhodes, 2010) use of genealogy and governmentality as part of his project to build a radically historicist social science and critical narrative political practice, Bang's (2004;Bang & Esmark, 2009) analyses of networks and contemporary governance, Newswander's (2011) work on security, Soss, Fording, and Schram's (2011) impressive research on poverty governance, and Sandberg's (2012;Catlaw & Sandberg, 2012) studies of the evolution of the nonprofit sector and open government. Perhaps the most impressive engagement is Peter Triantafillou's (2004Triantafillou's ( , 2007Triantafillou's ( , 2011 extensive and multifaceted exploration.…”