Pastoral Power and Governmentality in Michel Foucault

Abstract

This paper shows the contribution of the concept of governmentality used by Michel Foucault to know and understand the technology of confession in its political practice. Starting from the pastoral power, Foucault goes through the technologies of power that were used in the political aspect through a political actor such as the king and, later, the ruler. In this work, we observe the concern for ourselves, going from the organizing function of God to the configuration of the political institutions that administer the life of human beings.