pastoral power

is the state's governing of the day to day conduct of individuals and collectives (much like a shephard).

The modern State, Foucault argues, consist of the convergence of a very particular set of techniques, rationalities and practices designed to govern or guide people's conduct as individual members of a population and also to organize them as a political and civil collective in the same way as a shepherd who cares for his flock from birth to death. This idea of politically organizing the day to day conduct of the population is borrowed from the metaphor of the care of a shepherd for his flock and originated in Egyptian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian and Hebrew cultures.

pastoral power, n.Definitions

pastoral power