Foucaults treatment of bio power in the history of sexuality

Michel Foucault argues that bio-power has the power to allow or disallow life to the extent of death (Foucault, 43). Michel Foucault uses the concept to examine the complexities of power in the society. To better comprehend the power relationship between the state and individual, it is vital to examine Michael Foucault’s conception of power. The concept of power introduced by Michael Foucault work has set a new perspective of understanding the modern society. Foucault’s ideology of power challenges the notion that repressive force works through violence activities, he argues that it transforms the body to a useful and productive power. It also serves to discipline human life, mental health, sexual practices as well as death, sadness, and happiness. When the western world entered the era of biopolitics, Michael Foucault on the other side decides to go into critics and attaches to biopower double meaning and label its disciplinary power.

Disciplinary power is regarded as a type of power that addresses individual together with bio-politics concerning population management. Thus, the two roles complement each other, as such within the modern disciplinary society social control can be achieved by normalization techniques as well as strategies that produce normalized self-regulated individual. The notion of disciplinary is well explained in Michael Foucault work on the history of sexuality. Through coordinating and normalizing nature power is an instrument of control. While on the other hand surveillance and discipline processes characterize debates that concern individual wellbeing. As such, sexuality works as a bridge that joins the discipline of the body and population management. Although the perception of human body shifted through the 20th century, their willingness to be improved for proper functioning is the most crucial quality of development that focuses on health and life.

In this way, the body becomes an ultimate object as well as the target of power. But the good news is that through century forms of punishment transformed to be more corrective, less public and limited violence. On the other hand Disciplinary power entails the restoration of criminal to normative levels. In this case, power is decentralized into an institution like prisons and hospitals as well as education systems in which knowledge depends more on human science such as psychology and psychiatry among others. Power is exercised by disciplining the body. Precisely, the institution initiates corrective mechanisms that seek to rehabilitate an individual this way punishment becomes organized through surveillance and normalization so as to gain more knowledge. China One Child Policy China’s one-child policy is best regarded as a tool that has been applied by the communist to try to control population growth by trying to limit the increase of population through initiating the aspect of one child in China families.

This one child policy was first introduced in China in the year1978 by Deng Xiaoping cabinet. Surprisingly this policy is still in place until today. However, it has undergone a series of transformation throughout the years and now it is not as strict as it was when it was initiated. At least at the moment, the policy incorporates exceptional cases and other special cases such as ethnic minorities. Deng Xiaoping loved economic reform and perhaps his initiative played a great deal in opening China's modern foray into capitalism. Deng Xiaoping saw that population was a vital tool that could play a noble role in lifting china out of poverty. Michel Foucault tool of bio-power does a great job explaining the way the idea of China's one-child policy came into existence.