Paper presented at the 1st Annual Qualitative Methods Conference: "A spanner in the works of the factory of truth"20 October 1995, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

The RDP and meNicole Jaff

I was introduced to the works of Michel Foucault late in life and after my initialtotal incomprehension, scepticism and desperate late night calls to a friend whowas a luminary in the philosophy department, I began to see the light andbecame a convert. Constituted by his discourse, I drove my family and friendsmad by perceiving the workings of disciplinary power in every dinner tableconversation, in every book and newspaper article I read and in the electionposters I saw on the streets. In this talk I would like to discuss how I see powerrelations in the new South Africa.

In the old apartheid regime in South Africa, power was sovereign or repressive. This enabledprogressive South African psychologists to study issues which dealt with the manner in which powersubjects had been "damaged" by power holders. Our new government claims to have altered thestatus quo and created a situation where the disempowered have become empowered, "...it involves are-organisation of power relations and an irreversible shift in the balance of forces in the direction of thepreviously disempowered..."(Singh, 1992, p. 52) This still assumes that power is a commodity whichcan be held and conferred upon the individual or the masses; so that the old paradigms still apply.

However a different discourse might be applied, "the use of democratisation, restructuring,reconstruction, and, of course, transformation are...moving into centre stage within oppositionaldiscourse. The issue is, of course, whether such a reconstruction of the discourse of struggle is aeuphemistic accommodation to reform or a creative interpretation of revolution."(Singh, 1992,pp.50-51) Perhaps the RDP in the New South Africa can be better understood in terms of aFoucauldian analysis of a pervasive, disciplinary power which will ultimately change the way in whichpsychologists will view the individual as constituted within the South African society.

The traditional view of power is that it is a commodity which is held by a "power holder" who used it tocontrol a "power subject". Foucault suggested that history was divided into a series of epistemes, eachof them lasting one hundred and fifty years. In the epistemes preceding the Modern Age, the powerwas sovereign. In a feudal type of society it was held by a ruler, generally a king, prince or some greatoverlord, who would exercise the power over his subjects with a huge show of force and spectacle: "Itsarchitecture was the massive monoliths of force and respectability: the striking palace, the threateningdungeon, the inspiring cathedral."(Gruber, 1989, p.616)

This type of power presupposed that it was a commodity held by one individual and inexorablyexercised over his subjects to maintain the status quo. This was part of a natural order, and "the law, itwas held, represented the will of the sovereign; he who violated it must answer to the wrath ofkings...More precisely he must respond with excessive force." (Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p. 143) Thisdisplay of power was the restraint that maintained order in the kingdom. It was a "visible" power andthough inhumane it was understood by both the power-holder and the power subject.

For Foucault, it is far less insidious and evil than the disciplinary power that characterises the ModernAge and which will be discussed in detail at later stage.

In the old apartheid regime, South Africa was ruled by repressive power. Blacks were acted upon bythe Government as though they were a formless mass without basic human rights, which included thedenial of franchise. They were taught self regulation but it was, in my opinion, the result of a kind ofsovereign power; "...[that] was exercised with unignorable force; it was the occasional outburst of alightening flash that seared its way into the undifferentiated multitude."(Gruber, 1989, P.615) Someexamples would be the shooting of unarmed protestors at Sharpeville; the killing of Hector Peterson;banning and imprisonment without trial; images of Caspers and immaculate uniformed policemen withdogs straining at their leashes; unexplained deaths in prison; and torture to extract confession.

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Foucault would argue as I will demonstrate later that this is not sovereign power but "a more finelytuned mechanism of control over the social body, a more effective spinning of the web of power overeveryday life." (Couzens, 1983, p.136) But it seems that this power was pure intention and the peopleacted upon bore a striking resemblance to those "undifferentiated" feudal multitudes. Although, "power,Foucault, prefers to say, is a strategy, and the dominated are as much part of the network of powerrelations and the particular social matrix as the dominating." (Couzens, 1983, p.134)

This is the type of power we mean when we talk about disciplinary power; the power Foucault believedcharacterised the modern episteme or period. "Power is no longer the sovereign spasm that expendsitself against its undifferentiated object and then is reflected back to show the superiority of itsindividuality. Instead, power intensifies and reduplicates itself as it circulates endlessly through thenodes of its network; as this power multiplies itself, these individuals are more and more clearlydefined." (Gruber, 1989, pp. 617-618)

Whereas sovereign power is a visible entity, "disciplinary power reverses these relations. Now it ispower itself which seeks invisibility and the objects of power - those on whom it operates are mademost visible." (Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1983, p.154) It is absolutely pervasive in our society; taking theindividual and imbuing him with a sense of normality and self-regulation that ensures his absoluteobedience to the societal body or in other words the state. "Power not only produces subjects, it lies atthe bottom of all our social practices: politics, medicine, religion, psychiatry, work. These practices aresituated in a context in which power is everywhere...,[as Foucault says] power is coextensive with thesocial body; there are no spaces of primal liberty between the meshes of the network." (Digeser, 1992,p.980)

It is intrinsically a pessimistic view of modern life; saying in effect that "We are already trapped. This istolerable only to the extent that power operates behind the mask of law, whereby we presume that theworst power can do is to say 'NO'", [furthermore] power produces - everywhere, yet it does not exist inany substantive sense. Hence, we can never hold power nor can we escape it." (Paternek, 1987, p.100) The question of power masking itself must be related to discourse which is "conceived of as socialparlance or language-in-use, and...[is] both the product and manifestation... of particular socialconditions, class structures and power relationships that alter the course of history." (Abrams, 1993,p.262) In other words I might think that I am exercising my democratic option when I choose thecandidate I am going to vote for, but Foucault would say that behind the choice is a predetermineddiscourse that would assume that the choice had been made for me; and that "given that power andknowledge are joined in discourse, realise that discourse is potentially an instrument, an effect, and apoint of resistance." (Paternek, 1987, p. 100)

Individuality has become the raison d'etre of society, for in order to function smoothly the state needswhat Foucault refers to as "docile bodies", rather than an uncontrollable mass. Thus individuality "is animposed, inescapable necessity, a forced and enforced requirement. Attaining individuality is notgraduating to a subjectivity that would exercise autonomy and spontaneity; in the institutions, discourseand practices of human sciences, individuals are constituted as the particular objects that have adynamic of subjectivity." (Gruber, 1989, p.617)

Disciplinary power relies on the disciplinary technologies which include, surveillance, power /knowledge, normalization, confession and self-regulation.

Surveillance stems from Foucault's view of the Panopticon which ensures that everyone is constantlyobserved by an invisible entity that ensures our continued self-regulation and obedience. ThePanopticon as devised by Bentham in the eighteenth century, was a circular prison with the cells builtround a circular well so that the warders could observe the prisoners at all times without the prisonersknowing at precisely what moment they were being observed. Foucault saw the Panopticon as "aperfect example of a meticulous ritual of power..."(Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p.193) In a sense it is abrilliant form of coercion, for since the person is never sure whether he/she is being observed, anon-going regulation of self is imperative. And according to Foucault, "our society is not one ofspectacle, but of surveillance... the individual is carefully fabricated within it, according to a wholetechnique of forces and bodies... We are neither in the amphitheatre, nor on the stage but in thepanoptic machine." (Paternek, 1987, p. 109)

The normalizing of the individual is another successful mechanism of disciplinary power. It is "thestatisticalization of human variability through the use of the normal curve." (Rose, 1989, p. 128) In

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normalizing a person their subjectivity is reduced and they are encouraged to assume that which thestate has constituted as a true identity which "implies that there is a definite answer to the kind ofperson that human beings should be...[and there] are 'multiple drives to stamp truth' upon the normsand standards that define our identities. The idea of a "natural" identity (eg. a responsible, rational,self-disciplined, self interested agent) establishes a norm to live up to or to fall below." (Digeser, 1992,p. 999)

Perhaps the technology of confession is the most paradoxical of the mechanisms that Foucaultembraces to map out his analysis of power. The focus of the twentieth century on psychoanalysis gaverise to the myth of liberation through the insightful expression and interpretation of one's deepest most"forbidden", repressed thoughts and feelings. In other words a combination of the psychodynamic andthe pastoral - "and the truth shall set you free." It was "the particular type of discourse and particulartechniques which supposedly reveal our deepest selves...in confession after confession to oneself andto others, this mise en discourse has placed the individual in a network of relations of power with thosewho claim to be able to extract the truth of these confessions through their possession of the keys ofinterpretations." (Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p. 174)

This Modern Age heralded the arrival of the experts; those well versed in the social sciences, whichgave a validity to the politics of power by removing those particular discourses into the more neutralrealm of scientific language which gave a spurious respectability to the objectifying of power. "Theindividual is the effect and object of a certain crossing of power and knowledge. He is the product ofthe complex strategic developments in the field of power and the multiple developments in the humansciences." (Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p. 160) The experts were aided in this codification, analysis andmanipulation of data that placed the objectified individual on a specific grid, through the use ofcomputers; with their capacity to rapidly process vast amounts of information.

Self-regulation plays an important part in Foucault's analysis of power. It is an extremely economic wayof controlling a group of people. "The individual was to be taught to control his own life... This entailed atraining in the minute arts of self-scrutiny, self-evaluation, and self-regulation ranging from the control ofthe body, speech and movement in school... to the Puritan practices of self inspection and obedienceto divine reason." (Rose, 1989, p. 113) It was a type of reflexive hermeneutics.

What I have just described is the way Foucault analysed power. These disciplinary technologies can beused to map a certain view of power relations in the new South Africa. In order to illustrate my point Iwill be quoting extensively from the RDP Programme; the Truth Commission manifesto and variousarticles and speeches relating to the latter. I have chosen these documents because they are obviouslycentral to the discourses of the New South Africa. They also make extensive use of the politics oftransformation which is argued to have superseded the politics of protest" (Singh, 1992, p. 49) andemploys normalizing technologies of surveillance and self-regulation to achieve its reconstructiveideals.

The Truth Commission operates from within a discourse in which, as Foucault says "we areconstrained or condemned to confess or to discover the truth" (1980). It is in itself a technology ofdisciplinary power.

Although a repressive, fascist government has been exchanged for one of "national unity", the aims ofthe state, to have a well-governed country remain in some way the same. It is merely that thediscourses used are different. Disciplinary techniques are used to monitor the population, since thenew government appears to be aspiring to a more radical agenda of democratically planned changethan merely indicating a transitional politics whose outcome is unclear or indeterminate. This meansthat the smooth running of the state is dependant on the constituting of "docile bodies" who are bothobjectified and subjugated by the networks of power/knowledge that enmeshes them. "...there is theassumption, both at levels of rhetoric and reality, that transformation requires a substantial andmeaningful degree of organisationally-based popular participation in all key initiatives rather than theimposition of the views of elites, leaders or special interest groups, no matter how benevolent." (Singh,1992, p.51)

This is the language of reform which " is, from the outset, an essential component of these politicaltechnologies. Bio-power spread under the banner of making people healthy and protecting them."(Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p.196) The RDP makes use of this language to encourage people toparticipate in the building of South Africa "Millions of ordinary South Africans struggled against this

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[apartheid] system over decades to improve their lives, to restore peace, and to bring about a more justsociety...It is this collective heritage of struggle, these common yearnings, which are our greateststrength, and RDP builds on it." (1994, p. 3) The RDP has the praiseworthy aim of building a newSouth Africa and yet the language it embraces is a perfect example of the reform discourse so intrinsicto a disciplinary society:

"Normalizing technologies have an almost identical structure. They operate by establishing a commondefinition of goals and procedures, which take the form of manifestos and, even more forceful, agreedupon examples of how a well-ordered domain of human activity should be organised."(Dreyfus &Rabinow, 1994, p.198)

The networks of state that Foucault describes as essential for maintaining the spread of disciplinarypower are well in place in South Africa:

"The RDP national coordinating body must also ensure that the structures of civil society are involvedin the programme. It must ensure co-ordination between the various ministries, parastatals, labour,civic and other organizations. It must link with existing sectors and development forums at nationallevel, in order to establish effective systems of co-ordination."(1994, p.139) There seems to be apassion for committees and forums in the New South Africa, perhaps as a way of legitimizing statecontrol or of encouraging participation at all levels which will ensure the success of the programmes.The Economist wrote, "South Africa has an extraordinary mesh of civic organisations..."(1995, p. 26

The idea of humans as a valuable resource of the disciplinary state is central to Foucault's analysis ofpower: "In the expanding arena of the modern state and its administrative apparatus human beingswithin a given domain were considered a resource."(Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p.139) The RDPconcurs specifically with this view: "Our people with their aspirations and collective determination areour most important resource."(1994, p.5) They carefully use the appropriate words to ensureco-operation: "It is about active involvement and growing empowerment..."(1994, p.59) and objectifythe subject when they state, "human resources unlike other resources think for themselves."(1994,p.59)

The RDP insists on the rights of the workers to strike, which is a ploy fundamental to the disciplinarysociety, where in deference to liberal discourse "...the principle of government requires of the governedthat they freely conduct themselves in a certain rational way whether in the form of a "natural liberty"...,or as a freedom which is an artifact...Individual freedom in appropriate forms, is here a technicalcondition of rational government rather than the organizing value of a utopian dream."(Burchell, 1993,p.271)

The RDP also draws on the idea of surveillance and recommends that; "the Democratic governmentshould institute a National Nutrition Surveillance System, which should aim to weigh a statisticallysignificant proportion of children...to establish their levels of growth and wellbeing."(1994, p.42) Thiswell-intentioned aim once again reduces the variability of the individual to a point on the normal curveas well as gathering information in the name of reform.

It is thus that the New South Africa places its individuals on a grid of power. For example inincorporating Umkhonto weSizwe into the SANDF they are being placed on "this grid [which] permitsthe sure distribution of the individual to be disciplined and supervised; this procedure facilitates thereduction of dangerous multitudes...to fixed and docile individuals."(Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982, p. 154)Psychologists and other experts are available to help with the integration process and it seems asthough the former guerillas are submitting most docilely to the uniforms, rankings and traditions of theSANDF. The breaking down of both Umkhonto into "docile bodies" has ensured their allegiance to thestate.

Finally the Truth Commission in its exemplary desire for reconciliation and reparation is an example ofa power relation in the new South Africa that feeds right into the dispositif of the disciplinary power.Incorporating the techniques of power/knowledge, confession and self-regulation, it is a wonderfulexample of "the beautifully illuminated facade of liberal justice [which] rests discretely upon the obscurefoundation of disciplinary machinations."(Gruber, 1989, p.619):

"The President believes... the truths concerning human violations...They ought to be investigated,recorded and made known.. Part of our joint responsibility is to help illuminate the way, chart the road

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forward...We must involve our citizens in debate to ensure that human rights is [sic]...the birthright ofevery citizen".(1994, p.6) In this one page alone we can see the techniques of record gathering,normalizing and mapping a self regulatory grid.

Kadar Asmal, Minister for Water Affairs tells us "that an essential part of the process [of being adignified human being] is to get the truth of what happened in those dark days..."(1994, p.2) And, in apaper entitled Reconciliation, Graeme Simpson suggests that "an essential component of buildingreconciliation and treating the wounds of the past is to offer those who participate in violent acts anopportunity to discuss their motives as well as their fears." He also advocates "the normalizing of thepolice" as a central function of the Committee.

A final characteristic of the new South Africa is its infatuation with transparency. Perhaps it is a reactionto the covert power and secrecy of the apartheid regime but much of the rhetoric of the newgovernment is involved with this subject. In discussing the proposed legislation Simpson tells us"indeed the growing concern:...with the need to render the activities and internal functioning of policingand other security establishment institutions "transparent", suggests the necessary awareness in thiscontext, the whole question of "recovery of the truth" has a central proactive and remedial role."(1994,p.3)

The pervasive nature of Foucault's idea of disciplinary power strikes at the very roots of our ideologyand belief about the freedom of the individual, especially in our "brave new world". However, perhapsthere is some hope, for Foucault concedes that "there is indeed something in the social body, inclasses, in groups and individuals which in some sense escapes relations of power. Something whichis by no means a more or less docile or reactive primal matter, but rather a centrifugal movement, aninverse energy, a discharge".(1980) Perhaps the use of disciplinary technologies is necessary buttemporary, and members of the New South Africa realise that "the search for progressive strategiescannot, therefore avoid the issue of tranformatory discipline and the organisational and the othermechanisms through which this could be institutionalised."(Singh, 1992, p.56) Perhaps the "docilebodies" who constitute the New South Africa will discover, in their self-regulated world, that the creativeforce or inverse energy is the truth that can be implicit in the discourses of power, and society willunderstand as Foucault did that "power never ceases its interrogation, its inquisition, its registration oftruth; it institutionalises, professionalises and rewards its pursuit. In the last analysis we must producetruth as we must produce wealth."(Foucault, 1980)

Nicole Jaffc/o Department of Psychology

University of the WitwatersrandPO Wits

2050

Paper presented at the 1st Annual Qualitative Methods Conference: "A spanner in the works of the factory of truth"20 October 1995, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

critical methods society - www.criticalmethods.org - info@criticalmethods.org

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