Panopticism, Elites and the Deinstitutionalisation of the Civic

This chapter explores the peculiar phenomena associated with elites and the desire to be under surveillance. That is often understood as part of a broader desire to protect themselves and their possessions from harm, loss, etc. More specifically, the chapter focuses on surveillance as part of the ‘Fortress America’ movement that emerged as a topic of scholarly discussion from the neoclassical book by Blakely and Snyder (1997) examining gated communities in the USA. Specifically, there are two ideas emerging from this exercise, which have not made it to the forefront of discussions of elites and elite theory. The first involves the application of design strategies in gated communities that reflect Bentham’s (1995) concept of the panopticon. Briefly, the panopticon traditionally has been employed in the construction of hospitals and prisons. Oddly, these same panopticon designs have both in part and in total become commonplace in gated communities throughout the USA across multiple socio-economic strata. The second idea concerns the privatisation and commodification of the civic in general, along with an associated privatisation and commodification of public goods and services in particular. Both observations can be tied explicitly to our contemporary understating of elites and their associated trappings as part of a broader desire to buy ‘the good life’.