Records and Social Domination: Historical Background

In this article we start from the thesis, consolidated at the beginning of the twenty-first century, that there are links between domination systems and records systems, to propose a genealogical review of these concepts and some other associated ones. First, we approach the codification of bureaucracy carried out by Max Weber in 1922. Second, we return to the ancient Tabularium of Rome and, from it, to the German theory of the ius archivi. Thirdly, we review the texts in which Michel Foucault identified the mechanisms of surveillance and punishment, as well as the ordering of discourse. Next, we return to the vision that Jean Baudrillard exposed about the culture of simulacrum in contemporary societies. We end with the identification, short and quickly, of some ideas whose validity should be checked against the digital environments in which we currently operate.