Sewell and Wilkinson (1992) argue that Just-in-Time and Total Quality
Control systems are being established in the labour process so that em
ployees can be controlled in the most efficient manner with a minimum
of supervisors. Here it is argued that this is but one part of much wi
der processes which may appear to bring decentralisation while in fact
increasingly centralising power. The broader political and cultural c
ontexts and the historical roots of surveillance are reviewed and conc
eptualised as a movement from Taylorism to Social Taylorism. The devel
opment of corporate capitalism and the nation state introduces routine
and systematic surveillance, increasingly of an electronic kind, the
better to plan and control relationships. The concept of an 'electroni
c panopticon' is an appropriate way of understanding recent manifestat
ions of this long term trend.