Watching the Population: Biopolitics, Surveillance, and the Modern State

Abstract: The paper will examine the relationship between biopolitical surveillance and practices of the modern state. It will focus on the role of the census as an instrument of biopolitical surveillance, explaining how the systematic collection of demographic data renders the population visible and countable. The article will examine the census practices in the United Kingdom and the United States of America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article will show how the census, as a technology of power, played an important role in the process of nation-building in the United Kingdom, and on the other hand, promoted racial discourses in the United States of America. It will conclude that the census, often perceived as a neutral administrative tool, played a significant role in the expansion of biopolitical surveillance and the consolidation of state power in contemporary liberal democracies. Keywords: Biopolitics, surveillance, discourse, discipline, census, rationalities, state, race. Title: Watching the Population: Biopolitics, Surveillance, and the Modern State Author: Dr Bhushan Arekar International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online) Vol. 14, Issue 2, April 2026 - June 2026 Page No: 1-5 Research Publish Journals Website: www.researchpublish.com Published Date: 01-April-2026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19367726 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.researchpublish.com/papers/watching-the-population-biopolitics-surveillance-and-the-modern-state