What is the central concept of Michel Foucault's theory of 'panopticism' in modern disciplinary society?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Internalized self-policing driven by potential surveillance
- Step 1: Drawing on Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon prison design, Foucault analyzed how modern power operates through disciplinary surveillance. Because subjects cannot verify whether they are being observed at any given moment, they internalize the gaze, continuously policing themselves. Answer: Internalized self-policing driven by potential surveillance. Why not the others: "Physical execution in public squares" describes pre-modern sovereign punishment (spectacle of the scaffold), which panopticism replaced; "Democratic decision-making by inmates" is the exact opposite of the asymmetrical institutional surveillance analyzed by Foucault; "Total freedom from administrative laws" contradicts Foucault's thesis of the ubiquitous dispersion of disciplinary power throughout institutions.
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