The subject of the article is the analysis of a specific feature of contemporary political and administrative power. As analytic categories the author uses Foucaultian concepts of power discourses: sovereignty: the type of individualized power which strives for self-conservation (pre-modern type of power) and governmentality – the type of non-individualized power the aims of which are control and management of the population (modern type of power). Contemporary power – the bureaucratic power described by M. Weber etc. – seems to be the type of governmentality. But in this field emerges a new type of sovereign power legitimized by the discourse of governmentality – management and protection of the population. Its examples are analysed by G. Agemben i J. Butler indefinite detention in Guantanamo. In this articles, the author focuses on symptoms of the new type of sovereignty in day-to day government action – the practice of the polish organ of compulsory social insurance – Social Insurance Institution (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych).