On The Relationship Between Execution Of Death-Penalty And Operation Of Power

Death penalty is one of the oldest punishments in the world. It occupies very important position in the history of human development. The execution of death penalty is not only the process of deprivation of condemned prisoner's life, but also the symbolic ceremony which is launched by the country to educate and domesticate the national citizen. For a long time, the evolution of death-penalty execution was interpreted as the linear progress, from lower stage to higher, from barbarism to civilization. However, under the guidance of humanism, the cognition may be just one aspect of the problem. In the analysis of capital punishment, we must take the power seriously. Because it's the most important driving force behind that punishment. According to the differences of the essence and operation of the power, the kinds of death-penalty execution are in varied forms. Under the traditional state power, the execution reflected barbaous features, the citizen was menaced by it.For these reasons, it is very unstable. In modern society, under the operation of social power, the execution of death penalty tends to palliation. Accordingly, it becomes more normative and steadier. In Foucault's macro-power theory, the modern society has evolved into disciplinary society, so the execution of death-penalty goes forward to the dissimilation. In a word,power analysis gets the inherent mechanism of the death penalty, it can help us analyze the history of death penalty reform and the real change taking place nowadays.