by Forwardslash Tim
As a master's-level sociology student and lifelong Star Wars fan, I cannot help but contemplate how fictional institutions affect the lives of fictional people.
Power isn't the act of blowing up planets or enforcing mass incarcerations--after all, there are only so many planets, and a jailed populace tends to destabilize society. In the context of Andor (2022), the Empire gains power through fear when it presents itself as omnipresent. After all, what use is there in resisting if the Empire is always watching? The concept of Ruling through fear has another name in the Star Wars universe: the Tarkin Doctrine, and this method of social control reminded me of a social theorist named Michel Foucault and his book entitled Discipline and Punish (1975). Foucault was interested in power dynamics within society; he observed that power "reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes, and everyday lives" (Foucault 1980, p. 30). Moreover, Foucault recognized that knowledge itself was inextricably linked to power in society:
Knowledge linked to power not only assumes the authority of ‘the truth’ but has the power to make itself true. All knowledge, once applied in the real world, has effects, and in that sense at least, ‘becomes true.’ Knowledge, once used to regulate the conduct of others, entails constraint, regulation, and the disciplining of practice. Thus, there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitutes at the same time, power relations.
(Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, p. 27)
With these points in mind, an institution with knowledge of what individuals in a society are doing and thinking would be capable of exercising absolute power over them. Further, individuals within such a society would only possess rights or privileges at the whim of the ruling institution.
How does this relate to the Tarkin Doctrine, though? Rule through fear is certainly one way to keep a population in check. However, it does expend a lot of time and resources to keep people in a constant state of fear--after all, there are only so many plazas where one can land a ship and only so many protesters can gather in a single area.
In Discipline and Punish, Foucault wrote about a social theory of discipline in which social order was maintained through the fear of constant surveillance. Rule through fear doesn't necessarily mean that Tarkin will be hovering over each planet with guns at the ready, but it convinces the population that Tarkin could always be there. Similarly, the Panopticon Theory states that social order through the fear of constant surveillance isn't achieved by placing tiny microphones or cameras into everyone's homes. However, this theory does suggest that social order can be achieved by convincing a population that someone could always be listening, watching, and waiting for the slightest misstep.
Foucault further indicated that this surveillance culture would eventually influence individuals' subconscious thoughts, constructing a society in which the feeling of privacy does not exist. Finally, the Panoptic Theory culminates in a population that essentially polices itself, punishes itself, and ensures that social order is maintained because the Empire is everywhere, and they may be watching.
References:
M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.), Vintage Books, 1977.