I need help understand Foucault's point on power relations!?

Question

Specifically in The Subject and Power, i do not understand his idea of power relationships at all.

Answer 1

Basically, his point was that the person who has the ability to observe has the power. His ideas were somewhat tied to modern prisons. The ultimate power lies with someone who can see but can't be seen, specifically if the subjects being viewed are aware that they can be seen. Think about an interrogation room: everyone knows that the mirror in those rooms is not really a mirror, and that someone could be watching them from the other side. They will naturally behave as though someone is watching them, whether or not there's someone there. The person on the other side of the glass has control of the situation becuase s/he can see but not be seen. Even if s/he's not in the room, s/he has control over the other person, and weilds power over them.

His idea of ultimate power was something like that. Only that instead of one room, there would be a series of rooms. None of the prisoners would be able to see each other, and may or may not be aware that there are others in the same situation, but the guard would be able to see any and all of them simultaneously.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

He shifted his opinions between youthful idealism and mature realism, which is very normal.
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I would like my books to be a kind of tool-box which others can rummage through to find a tool which they can use however they wish in their own area… I would like the little volume that I want to write on disciplinary systems to be useful to an educator, a warden, a magistrate, a conscientious objector. I don't write for an audience, I write for users, not readers.

РMichel Foucault (1974), 'Prisons et asiles dans le m̩canisme du pouvoir' in Dits et Ecrits,