Max Weber, Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault on power and subjectivity

So far, German sociology has hardly discussed the work of Michel Foucault. One reason for this neglect is, that his work is regarded as suffering theo retical flaws and conceptual problems - an interpretation, which is promine nt in the discussion of Foucault's ,,analytics of power". This paper presen ts a rather different view. The comparison of Foucault's conception of ,,go vernmentality" with both, Weber's sociology of domination and Elias's theor y of the process of civilization shows, how this idea allows to go well bey ond certain limits of the two classical approaches. Moreover, the paper arg ues, that the conception of governmentality opens up new and important rese arch perspectives as well as innovative theoretical questions to sociology.