For the Government of Its Servants: Law and Disciplinary Power in the Work Place, 1870-1906
In: Studies in law, politics, and society, Band 13, S. 105-136
ISSN: 1059-4337
Suggests the need for a more complex picture of the role of law in industrial capitalism, one focusing on the relationship between law & power exercised in & around the workplace as well as law's relationship with capitalists & workers. A qualitative analysis of appellate court opinions on employers' liability 1870-1906 finds that the representation of work in these opinions is related to transformations in the technology & organization of the railroad industry, the leading sector of the economy during the period. It is suggested that the introduction of disciplinary technologies of power over workers was initially hidden & politically defused by the law. Over time, however, the law helped sustain a rationalization process within disciplinary power that increasingly sought to hold managers & workers accountable to its logic of systematic coordination & control. The eventual shift to workers' compensation reflected the limits of discipline in governing the work place. 54 References. Modified AA