The McDonaldized Death Penalty: Neoliberalism, Governmentality, and American Capital Punishment

<p>An extensive literature examines the modern era (1976-present day) of American capital punishment. Some has focused on why the institution persists despite abolition from the rest of the Western world. An example of this is Steiker and Steiker (2016) who argue that judicial rationalization of capital law has helped to legitimate and thus sustain the modern death penalty. However, no work attempts to understand capital punishment or its persistence in America in regards to neoliberalism. To address this void in understanding, I conceptualize Ritzer's four tenets of McDonaldization (predictability, calculability, efficiency, control) as a representation of market rationality, which neoliberalism seeks to insert into various societal spheres (including penality). I examine modern era developments in capital punishment in the United States through the contextual framework of McDonaldization to understand how McDonaldization has served to legitimate the institution. My analysis suggests a transition of the neoliberalized death penalty in the direction of government of government, or what Dean (2010), drawing on Foucault's treatment of governmentality, calls reflexive government. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Justice Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Eastern Kentucky University

Year

2017

Author dc:creator

• Phillips, Ryan

• Capital Punishment
• Death Penalty
• Governmentality
• McDonaldization
• Neoliberalism
• Criminology and Criminal Justice

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Ryan Phillips

Repository record dc:identifier

https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/551

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:encompass.eku.edu:etd-1549