Assignment 1 - MONTES

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
College of Social Sciences and Development

Department of History
MONTES, Tracy Lianne Marie P. Social Institutions

BA History 2-3 Prof. Abel Ubaldo
ASSIGNMENT 1
Compare and contrast the role of different meta-institutions according to classical Marxist and
Foucauldian perspectives. Use the table below to show your answers.
MARX FOUCAULT
Marx defined the institutional
The family, as per Foucault, is a
perspective of family as a “Unit
"disciplinary institution" whose
FAMILY of Composition” and teaches
power has been gradually diluted
passive acceptance of hierarchy.
throughout time. He asserts that this
Also, it is the institution through
has been absorbed by discipline and
which the aristocratic/elite class
"supplementary" to biopower rather
handed along with the private
than constituting it
property from one generation to
another from exploiting the
He defines "family" as a patriarchal
proletariats. Hence, it promotes
institution in which the father
class disintegration because of
exercises power and authority over
the existing capitalist system
everything while relegating the
mother to the same to
de-individuated the status of
children within a domestic sphere.
In the Marxist concept of State, On the other hand, power is

it has been seen as the most something that is exercised.
STATE powerful and economically
dominant class (bourgeoisie).
The ruling class uses economic Foucault viewed the state as a
influence and machinery for “process of statification” which is
class exploitation in order to continuously formed and
accumulate wealth, power, and perpetuated by the mechanisms,
common interest over the others culture, and practices of
which would end the class government and the administrative
conflict. In addition, he believed system that becomes statified to
that the state was part of the control the people and can force
superstructure by the economic one’s will.
base forming the foundation of
the social life. The sovereign’s power is shown
through the public execution and
According to his written account torture of criminals and other social
called “The German ideology”, deviants which creates fear and a
he also stated that through the strong sense of awe in the public.
emancipation of private property
from the community, the State
has become a separate entity.
But it is more than the form of
organization that the bourgeois
necessarily adopts both external
and internal purposes, for the
mutual guarantee of their
property and interests.
The state must introduce policies

and mechanisms that will allow
workers in some form of
contentment without challenging
the economic order.
According to the Marxist According to Foucault, educational
viewpoint on education, schools institutions are centers of
EDUCATION aimed to legitimize and promote disciplinary power and authority
class disparities by establishing a where students are disciplined and
submissive class and labor force monitored through practices and
and preparing for positions of norms that regulate individual
power and influence. behavior. As a result, educational
institutions produce good and
Middle and upper-class families decent students.
utilized their cultural and
material capital to guarantee that
their children have the best
quality of education so that they
may easily find better
opportunities, whereas
lower-class children with the
poorest quality of education
would eventually end up in
working-class forms of
employment and remain
underprivileged because they
choose to suffer from cultural
and material deprivation and
impoverishment.
Marxists are concerned with From a Foucauldian perspective,
labor and systems of capitalism, economics is a discipline that
ECONOMY especially the role of surplus begins to create power and
products, and values in any demonstrate the impossibility of a
economic activities. sovereign point of the view over the
totality.
Forced workers could spend
much more time manufacturing
and producing goods to acquire
their subsistence in supporting
their daily necessities, and they
are using the excess product.
However, entrepreneurs or
capitalists who earn a profit by
selling their products at an
expensive price but whose
workers and staff has generated
value through labor are
underpaid.
Marx claimed that these

practices inherent to capitalism
may lead to the exploitation of
workers.
From the Marxist’s perspective, Religion is a social institution
religion is one of the social where individuals are compelled to
RELIGION institutions that is influenced by act accordingly.
economic and material factors in
a particular society and Religion is situated by webs of
prevented social change from disciplinary power relations that
creating false consciousness. deploy hegemonic power and
authority of language, culture,
For Marx, religion plays a teachings, and practices over other
crucial role in maintaining an groups within a society based on
unequal status quo in which the theory of panopticism.
people, especially the
bourgeoise/elite used religion to The panopticon was used in
keep the less powerful Foucault's Discipline and Punish to
proletariats restrained from maintain authority and ensure good
acquiring resources. behavior among prisoners. It is
characterized as a central power
when one person has authority over
the surrounding area (surveillance).
He claimed that the panopticon's

prime objective is to induce the
prisoner's sense of awareness.

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POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

College of Social Sciences and Development

MONTES, Tracy Lianne Marie P. Social Institutions

In the Marxist concept of State, On the other hand, power is

The state must introduce policies

Marx claimed that these

He claimed that the panopticon's

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