Obywatelski Panoptikon? Idea społecznego nadzoru
Civic Panopticon? The idea of social supervision

Author(s): Kinga Jaruga
Subject(s): Political history
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: panopticon; supervision; watchdog organisation; guard organisations;surveillance;
Summary/Abstract: The experience of recent centuries teaches that the concept of Panopticon, an ideal prison designed in the eighteenth century, whose idea consisted in the conviction/sensation of being continuously controlled, reaches well beyond the sketch of the penitentiary architecture. The Bentham’s vision, adapted into the domain of science in the form of an idea being the symbol of permanent surveillance, more and more frequently is becoming an object of the discussion among the citizens concerned about the fact that it will eventually be an inevitable element of life in the modern state. The chief aim of this article is to attempt to reverse the order proposed by Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault by presenting forms and tools of public scrutiny over public institutions and centres of power. The author’s intention is to present forms provided by law to control power, examples of organisations (such as WatchDog, Think Thank, etc.) and initiatives undertaken by them in order to eliminate negative practices being the effect of the governance. The deliberations will be therefore focused on the attempt to outline the conditions determining the actual attainability of enforcing transparency of acting of the state administration bodies.

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