Michel Foucault’s phrase "we still have not cut off the head of the king" means that political philosophy and social analysis are still too obsessed with top-down, centralized models of power centered on the state and the sovereign. [1, 2, 3]

Foucault used this metaphor to explain several key ideas:

Rejection of Centralized Power

• Top-down view: Traditional political theory assumes power flows in one direction—from a central ruler, government, or state down to the people.
• The Sovereign model: Philosophy has spent centuries fixated on laws, rights, prohibitions, and the person at the apex of the hierarchy (the king or the state). [1, 2, 3]

Power as Repressive vs. Productive

• Beyond "No": We tend to view power as purely negative or repressive (e.g., the king saying "you cannot do this or you will be punished").
• Capillary power: Foucault argued that power is not just held by a king or government; it is diffuse, decentralized, and operational ("capillary") throughout everyday life, institutions, schools, clinics, and families. It doesn't just stop people; it produces knowledge, routines, and normalizes behavior. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Shifting the Analysis

• Moving past sovereignty: To truly understand how modern society works, Foucault argued we must stop looking only at state sovereignty and instead examine the "microphysics of power"—how disciplines, normalization, and surveillance operate across the entire social body. [1, 2]