The paper seeks to enhance our understanding of the interaction between the development of disciplinary power in western liberal society and Foucault's writings on governmentality, through examination of the political processes resulting from the largest public scandal in the UK, the Poulson scandal of the early 1970s. The first research motive is to uncover any additional insights or hidden understandings that can be derived by applying Foucauldian historiographical and governmental perspectives as strengthened by Dean's (2010) analytics of government to the history of corporate governance in English local authorities over the forty years following Poulson. We argue that the continual process of intervention, investigation and prescription by central government set in motion by the scandal resulted in an increase in disciplinary power within local government by changing the expectations of council officials, elected representatives and politicians in Westminster through the normalisation of these intrusions and the spirit of dependency and compliance which resulted. Secondly, the paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of the analytics approach in a complex situation involving many genealogical disruptions to the status quo over a long time-period; and whilst the paper found the method helpful, limitations emerged regarding its claims to empirical certainty through precise questioning. Finally, the paper examines the significance of countering corruption as a motivating factor in the rise of disciplinary power in English local government, which it finds as limited.

本文旨在通过考察 1970 年代初英国最大的公共丑闻——鲍尔森丑闻所产生的政治进程，加深我们对西方自由社会规训权力的发展与福柯治理术著作之间相互作用的理解。第一个研究动机是揭示任何额外的见解或隐藏的理解，这些见解或隐藏的理解可以通过应用福柯的史学和政府视角来得出，迪恩（2010）对鲍尔森之后四十年来英国地方当局的公司治理历史的政府分析加强了这一点。 。我们认为，持续的干预过程，丑闻引发的中央政府调查和规定，通过将这些入侵行为常态化以及依赖和服从的精神，改变了议会官员、民选代表和威斯敏斯特政治家的期望，从而导致地方政府内部纪律权力的增加。结果。其次，本文探讨了在长期对现状造成许多谱系破坏的复杂情况下分析方法的优点和缺点；尽管该论文发现该方法很有用，但其通过精确提问来获得经验确定性的主张存在局限性。最后，本文探讨了反腐败作为英国地方政府纪律权力崛起的推动因素的重要性，