DOCSLIB.ORG

Nicos Poulantzas: for Gramsci

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo­ graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re­ produced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. These are also available as one exposure on a standard 35mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and white photographic print for an additional charge. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 Nortfi Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 8921661 Nicos Poulantzas: For Gramsci Kardaxas, Basil P., Ph.D. The American University, 1989 Copyright ©1989 by Kardaras, Basil P. All ri^ts reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 NICOS POULANTZAS: FOR GRAMSCI BY Basil P. Kardaras submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology Signatures of Coirpittee: Chairperson: Dean ofofithe Ithe CollegeDean College 24 April 1989 Date 1989 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY © COPYRIGHT BY BASIL P. KARDARAS 1989 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For Eleni and Katherine NICOS POULANTZAS: FOR GRAMSCI BY Basil P. Kardaras ABSTRACT Nicos Poulantzas' work makes a major epistemological contribution to the study of the production and reproduction of the social relations of existence. This work is an in-depth exegesis and analysis of Poulantzas' views on the capitalist State, social classes, ideology, and the democratic transition to democratic socialism. Poulantzas' relational or articulation theory is systematically developed with regard to the political, ideological, and economic practices. It is shown that these practices are fundamental ensembles whose particular form of articulation establishes the morphology of concrete social formations. There is also an examination of the work of Antonio Gramsci and Louis Althusser. The linkages between Gramsci's problematic and Poulantzas' problematic are revealed on a variety of levels through a symptomatic reading. Poulantzas makes wide use of Gramsci's concepts, e.g., hegemony, historical bloc/power bloc, etc., which he articulates with the structural concepts of Althusser to ii form a new and more powerful epistemology. It is further noted that Althusser's work on ideology, like that of Poulantzas, is heavily overdetermined by Gramsci's problematic. Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Professors Samih Farsoun, the chair of my committee, Ken Kusterer, and John Scott for their support and encouragement throughout my whole project. I am especially indebted to these individuals for their epistemologically powerful courses, and for allowing me to pursue topics of special interest. The content of their courses was instrumental in my intellectual development, and is reflected in the morphology of this work. Professors Farsoun's and Kusterer's courses in political economy/macrosociology, and Professor Scott's courses in social inequality coupled with Professor Kusterer's and Professor Gert Mueller's social theory courses were of paramount significance for me. I am grateful to the Department of Sociology for providing a vibrant and stimulating atmosphere for me to learn and teach. The department's members, my students, and the unfolding character of historical conjunctures were forces in my own intellectual development. I would like to thank Robert David, as chair of the department during this tenure, for his support. I would also like to thank Helen Koustenis, the department's administrator, for her kindness iv and support. In addition, I would like to thank The American University for granting me a one year University Doctoral Fellowship to pursue my research and writing. I wish to thank my parents, Peter and Helen, and my wife, Dessie, for their support. My father was instrumental in tracing some of the Greek bibliographic material, and my wife was very helpful on the French translations. I could not have done it without them. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Chapter I. THE PROBLEM................................... 1 Introduction to the Problematic ............ 1 The Value of the S t u d y .................... 5 Methodology................................. 15 Chapter Contents ........................... 18 II. BIOGRAPHICAL AND INTELLECTUAL NOTES .......... 20 The Greek Context........................... 20 The French C o n t e x t ......................... 22 III. FROM STRUCTURALISM TO STRUCTURAL MARXISM . 27 The Specificity of Structuralism ........ 27 Ferdinand de Saussure ...................... 31 Sigmund Freud ............................... 33 Claude Lévi-Strauss ......................... 35 The Rise of Marxist Study in France: The Antecedents to Structural Marxism ........ 38 Structural Marxism ......................... 47 Maurice Godelier ........................... 49 Louis Althusser............ 52 Epistemological Break and Problematic .... 53 The Genealogy of Marx's Epistemological B r e a k ..................................... 56 Overdetermination: The Negation of Economism................................. 58 Causality, Empiricism, and Historicism . 65 Contradiction, Conjuncture, and Transition: The Unity of the Concepts . 68 Economism/Humanism ......................... 72 Economism................................... 74 H u m a n i s m ................................... 77 Class Struggle: The Denial of the Bourgeois Fetishization of M a n .................... 80 VI IV. THE GRAMSCIAN PROBLEMATIC.................. 88 The Metamorphosis.................... .. 88 Economism................................. 91 P o s i t i v i s m ............................... 94 H e g e m o n y ................................. 98 The Specificity of Hegemony.............. 105 Hegemony and Ideology .................... 109 Civil Society and the S t a t e .............. 117 War of Position and War of Maneuver .... 125 The Crisis of Hegemony .................. 130 Organic Intellectuals .................... 136 V. THE ARCHITECTONICS OF AN EMERGING PROBLEMATIC............................... 143 The Articulation of the Practices........ 143 Mode of Production and Social Formation . 149 Specification of the Practices .......... 157 The Economic Practice .................... 158 The Political Practice .................. 164 The Ideological Practice ................ 168 VI. PROLEGOMENA TO THE STUDY OF THE STATE .... 174 Social Relations of Production .......... 174 The Specificity of the Power B l o c ........ 184 H e g e m o n y ................................. 194 Relative Autonomy ........................ 199 The Poulantzas-Miliband Debate .......... 215 VII. THE MATERIAL SPECIFICITY OF THE CAPITALIST STATE ..................................... 233 The Problem with Economism .............. 233 Characteristics of the Capitalist State . 238 The Dominant and the Dominated Classes . 241 Authoritarian Statism .................... 247 VIII. SOCIAL CLASSES ............................. 259 The Structural Determination of Social C l a s s e s................................. 259 The Wage Question and C l a s s .............. 274 The Taxonomic and Topographical Existence of the Petty B o u r g e o i s i e .............. 279 IX. THE MATERIALITY OF IDEOLOGY................ 302 The Ideological Practice ................ 302 Ideology and State Apparatuses .......... 311 Vll The Ideological State Apparatuses ........ 318 Interpellation .......................... 328 The Juridico-Political Region of Ideology . 335 The Juridico-Political Discourse and the Monopoly of Force-Violence ............ 340 The Juridico-Political Discourse of Law . 345 CONCLUSION......................................... 352 The Edifice.............. 352 The Crisis of/in Marxism ................ 362 Crisis in Conjunctures .................. 363 The Transition to Democratic Socialism . 371 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................... 390 Vlll CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction to the Problematic The oeuvre of Nicos Poulantzas represents a major epistemological break^ with former conceptualizations of the capitalist State, social classes, ideology, politics, and the social relations that constitute the capitalist social formation. Poulantzas' problematic^ makes valuable ^An epistemological
Recommended publications
  • Poulantzas and Marxist Theory

    Poulantzas and Marxist Theory

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Research Online 28 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 73 POULANTZAS A N D MARXIST THEORY By Peter Beilharz Nicoa Poulantzas For Athol — u>ho dialogues with me still was swept by the new trend in marxism initiated by Louis Althusser. Poulantzas — Peter Beilharz followed in the wake of this wave without conspicuously joining the Althusserian entourage. Nicos Poulantzas died on October 3, 1979 Unlike the others (e.g. Balibar), he did not in Paris, aged 43. He was the author of six co-write or co-publish with Althusser, but books, theoretical works which most people nevertheless came to be thought of as one of could not afford, let alone understand. them. Poulantzas’ distance from Althusser Socialists should not feel obliged to mourn was an important one, because those directly the dead simply because the world — or associated with Althusser later found it Parisian fashion — tells us they were Great. difficult to modify their positions. So why mourn Poulantzas? Other recent Poulantzas did not publicly proclaim himself deaths, such as that of Marcuse, have not to be an Althusserian, and thus was more been unexpected. The entire generation of readily able to cast off the Althusserian shell socialists which has survived two wars is when it became uncomfortably restricting. now disappearing; we can expect many more theoretical obituaries in the next decade. Most English-speaking marxists came Though older than some of us, Poulantzas upon Poulantzas in the early ’seventies. was of our generation.
  • SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020

    SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020

    SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020 DRAFT Class times and location Wednesday 10:30am -12:30pm Virtual synchronous Instructor: David Calnitsky Office Hours by appointment Department of Sociology Office: SSC 5402 Email: [email protected] Technical Requirements: Stable internet connection Laptop or computer Working microphone Working webcam “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” – Karl Marx That is the point, it’s true—but not in this course. This quote, indirectly, hints at a deep tension in Marxism. If we want to change the world we need to understand it. But the desire to change something can infect our understanding of it. This is a pervasive dynamic in the history of Marxism and the first step is to admit there is a problem. This means acknowledging the presence of wishful thinking, without letting it induce paralysis. On the other hand, if there are pitfalls in being upfront in your desire to change the world there are also virtues. The normative 1 goal of social change helps to avoid common trappings of academia, in particular, the laser focus on irrelevant questions. Plus, in having a set of value commitments, stated clearly, you avoid the false pretense that values don’t enter in the backdoor in social science, which they often do if you’re paying attention. With this caveat in place, Marxian social science really does have a lot to offer in understanding the world and that’s what we’ll analyze in this course. The goal is to look at the different hypotheses that broadly emerge out of the Marxian tradition and see the extent to which they can be supported both theoretically and empirically.
  • Reconstructing Structural Marxism

    Reconstructing Structural Marxism

    REVIEWS Reconstructing Structural Marxism Ted Benton, The Rise and Fall of Structural Marxism; The charge of Stalinism, together with the current Althusser and his Influence, Macmillan, London, 1984, state of disarray amongst Althusserians, provides 259pp lI8.00 hc, 1.6.95 pb Benton with one of the two major reasons for writing Rise and Fall; namely to defend Structural Marxism Benton's book has many facets: it is an introductory against post-structuralist and other critics (the other text, a re-evaluation and reconstruction of Structural reason being the need for an introductory text in the Marxism, an argument for theoretical progress lying area). One way in which .8enton accomplishes this def­ through the synthesis of Structural Marxism with do­ ence is by laying bare Structural Marxism'S sociological mains such as the ecological, biological and psycho­ complexi ty. This completely appears as the obverse side logical. Of immediate political relevance is its claim of the process of displacement,· as decentr ing, of human that theorisation of socialist strategy requires a recog­ agency by the Althusserian paradigm. The stratagem of nition by the Marxist tradition of non class-based decentring, an anti-reificatory device, denies that the emancipatory social movements. AU these strands are individual agent is onto logically prior to social. struc­ brought together in the major objective of the book - a tures, events and processes. This refutation of the critical defence of Structural Marxism. 'social substantiality' of the individual subject is the Rise and Fall is divided into three thematic parts. basis of Althusser's anti-humanism. The first centres on questions of epistemology as they surface in Structural Marxism: the science-ideology dis­ Sociological complexity tinction, the epistemological break, the concept of a problematic, Marxism and philosophy.
  • Educational Philosophy: from Classical Marxism to Critical Pedagogy

    Educational Philosophy: from Classical Marxism to Critical Pedagogy

    Marxian Perspectives on Educational Philosophy: From Classical Marxism to Critical Pedagogy By Douglas Kellner (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/) It is surely not difficult to see that our time is a time of birth and transition to a new period. The spirit has broken with what was hitherto the world of its existence and imagination and is about to submerge all this in the past; it is at work giving itself a new form. To be sure, the spirit is never at rest but always engaged in ever progressing motion.... the spirit that educates itself matures slowly and quietly toward the new form, dissolving one particle of the edifice of its previous world after the other,.... This gradual crumbling... is interrupted by the break of day that, like lightning, all at once reveals the edifice of the new world. Hegel 1965 [1807]: 380. The theory associated with Marxism was developed in mid-19th century Europe by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Although Marx and Engels did not write widely about education, they developed theoretical perspectives on modern societies that have been used to highlight the social functions of education and their concepts and methods have served to both theorize and criticize education in the reproduction of capitalist societies, and to support projects of alternative education. In this study, I will first briefly sketch the classical perspectives of Marx and Engels, highlighting the place of education in their work. Then, I lay out the way that Marxian perspectives on education were developed in the Frankfurt School critical theory, British cultural studies, and other neo- Marxian and post-Marxian approaches grouped under the label of critical pedagogy, that emerged from the work of Paulo Freire and is now global in scope.
  • REVISITED Capitalism, Higher Education and Ecological Crisis

    REVISITED Capitalism, Higher Education and Ecological Crisis

    REPRODUCTION REVISITED Capitalism, Higher Education and Ecological Crisis TONI RUUSKA REPRODUCTION REVISITED Published by MayflyBooks. Available in paperback and free online at www.mayflybooks.org in 2019. © Toni Ruuska 2019 Cover photo and design by Risto Musta ISBN: 978-1-906948-42-9 (Print) 978-1-906948-43-6 (PDF) 978-1-906948-44-3 (ebook) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. REPRODUCTION REVISITED Capitalism, Higher Education and Ecological Crisis TONI RUUSKA may f l y www.mayflybooks.org iv CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………1 2. MARX AND MARXISM…………………………………14 Philosophy, ecology, education 3. CAPITALISM AND FINITE PLANET………………… 56 The Absolute Contradiction 4. REPRODUCTION OF CAPITALISM…………………115 5. CAPITALISM, HIGHER EDUCATION………………156 AND ECOLOGICAL CRISIS 6. HIGHER EDUCATION AS A FACTORY……………180 OF COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATIONS The Finnish Context 7. REPRODUCTION REVISITED…………………………240 Conclusions 8. REFERENCES……………………………………………256 v vi 1 INTRODUCTION t is warmer now. The climate is changing. Somewhere rains Iare heavier, somewhere they are non-existent. Storms are more intense. The weather is unstable. Recurring heat waves and floods torment the livelihoods of humans and other earthly beings. Ice melts, and ocean levels are on the rise, as are ocean temperatures. Worse still, climate change is only one part of the ongoing ecological crisis (see e.g. Steffen et al., 2015), although perhaps the most critical part of it together with biodiversity loss. This crisis, for one, is human-induced.
  • Towards a Unified Theory Analysing Workplace Ideologies: Marxism And

    Towards a Unified Theory Analysing Workplace Ideologies: Marxism And

    Marxism and Racial Oppression: Towards a Unified Theory Charles Post (City University of New York) Half a century ago, the revival of the womens movementsecond wave feminismforced the revolutionary left and Marxist theory to revisit the Womens Question. As historical materialists in the 1960s and 1970s grappled with the relationship between capitalism, class and gender, two fundamental positions emerged. The dominant response was dual systems theory. Beginning with the historically correct observation that male domination predates the emergence of the capitalist mode of production, these theorists argued that contemporary gender oppression could only be comprehended as the result of the interaction of two separate systemsa patriarchal system of gender domination and the capitalist mode of production. The alternative approach emerged from the debates on domestic labor and the predominantly privatized character of the social reproduction of labor-power under capitalism. In 1979, Lise Vogel synthesized an alternative unitary approach that rooted gender oppression in the tensions between the increasingly socialized character of (most) commodity production and the essentially privatized character of the social reproduction of labor-power. Today, dual-systems theory has morphed into intersectionality where distinct systems of class, gender, sexuality and race interact to shape oppression, exploitation and identity. This paper attempts to begin the construction of an outline of a unified theory of race and capitalism. The paper begins by critically examining two Marxian approaches. On one side are those like Ellen Meiksins Wood who argued that capitalism is essentially color-blind and can reproduce itself without racial or gender oppression. On the other are those like David Roediger and Elizabeth Esch who argue that only an intersectional analysis can allow historical materialists to grasp the relationship of capitalism and racial oppression.
  • The Dewey-Trotsky Encounter in Politics and Praxis by Kevin S

    The Dewey-Trotsky Encounter in Politics and Praxis by Kevin S

    In London Street: The Dewey-Trotsky Encounter in Politics and Praxis by Kevin S. Decker In London Street: The Dewey-Trotsky Encounter in Politics and Praxis by Kevin S. Decker English Abstract No one who has looked closely can fail to see a remarkable congruency between the synthesis of ideas that represents the culmination of classical pragmatism, on the one hand, and Marx’s early humanist program on the other. Despite this ground for potential commensurability, Trotsky and Dewey, while historical near-contemporaries, were fundamentally polar opposites; their contributions to “Their Morals and Ours,” Dewey and Trotsky found themselves on opposing theoretical positions with regard to the idea that, as one student of socialism claims, “as certainty about the future dissipates, ethics becomes necessary.” Despite the fact that one philosophized about civil society while the other acted in lieu of an established civil society, Dewey and Trotsky both recognized valid reasons for the crisis of public authority in Western liberalism. I argue that what unites the politics of Dewey with the early Marx, a view of praxis that demonstrates human intelligence as crystallized in social and technical practices, is precisely what Trotsky (and other Bolshevik leaders) abandoned in an effort to impose an over-intellectualized ideological framework on Russian society and culture. From this perspective, the Bolshevik experiment was bound to fail. The reasons for this entail lessons for how to address the “democratic deficit” in Western politics in general today. Resumen en español Nadie que haya mirado de cerca se puede dejar de ver una congruencia notable entre la síntesis de las ideas que representa la culminación del pragmatismo clásico, por un lado, y pronto programa humanista de Marx sobre el otro.
  • Nicos Polantzas: Marxist Theory and Political Strategy by Bob Jessop Review By: George C

    Nicos Polantzas: Marxist Theory and Political Strategy by Bob Jessop Review By: George C

    Nicos Polantzas: Marxist Theory and Political Strategy by Bob Jessop Review by: George C. Comninel The American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Jun., 1987), pp. 616-617 Published by: American Political Science Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1961985 . Accessed: 05/10/2014 22:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Political Science Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Political Science Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.63.180.147 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 22:22:32 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions American Political Science Review Vol. 81 Nicos Poulantzas:Marxist Theory and Polit- zas's development-through the influence of ical Strategy.By Bob Jessop(New York:St. French philosophy, Italian Marxism (della. Martin's,1985. xviii, 391 p. $39.95, cloth; Volpe, Gramsci, and Ingrao), and his early $14.95, paper). training in Romano-German law-imposes a sometimes awkward structure on the book. Jessop'sbook is a sympatheticand convinc- Yet these diverse elements are handled clearly ing analysis of the development of Nicos and without heavy reliance on Poulantzas's Poulantzas'spolitical thought that, paradox- jargon.
  • In the Matter of Marxism

    In the Matter of Marxism

    03-Tilley-3290-Ch01.qxd 11/17/2005 6:57 PM Page 13 1 IN THE MATTER OF MARXISM Bill Maurer The real unity of the world consists in its have insisted on an account of actually existing materiality, and this is proved not only by a few ‘men’ in their real, material conditions of exis- juggled phrases, but by a long and wearisome tence. Reactions against abstraction in theory development of philosophy and natural science. more recently often explicitly or implicitly (Engels, Anti-Dühring, 1877) invoke the Marxist heritage as both a theoreti- cal formation and an agenda for oppositional You make me feel mighty real. political practice. As Marx wrote in his eleventh thesis on Feuerbach, ‘The philosophers have (Sylvester, 1978) only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.’ Or, as a colleague once put it to me, ‘Derrida never helped save a WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH Guatemalan peasant.’ MARXISM? This chapter uses a narrow delineation of the field of Marxist-inspired debate and critique, emphasizing those anthropologists (and, to a It is difficult to think about materiality, or to lesser extent, archaeologists) who explicitly think materially about the social, without invoke Marxism in its various guises and who thinking about Marxism. The Cold War led seek in Marxist theories a method and a theory many scholars in the West to use ‘materialism’ for thinking materially about the social. The as a code word for Marxism for much of the chapter pays particular attention to the instances twentieth century. More recently, in certain when such authors attempt to think critically quarters of social scientific thought, materiality about what difference it makes to stress mate- stands in for the empirical or the real, as against riality and to think ‘materially’.
  • Poulantzas and the Political Project

    Poulantzas and the Political Project

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CommonKnowledge Pacific University CommonKnowledge Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Faculty Scholarship (CAS) 2017 Writing the Revolution : Poulantzas and the Political Project Christopher D. Wilkes Pacific University Recommended Citation Wilkes, Christopher D., "Writing the Revolution : Poulantzas and the Political Project" (2017). Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work. 5. https://commons.pacificu.edu/sasw/5 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship (CAS) at CommonKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work by an authorized administrator of CommonKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Writing the Revolution : Poulantzas and the Political Project Description 'Writing the Revolution: Poulantzas and the Political Project' is an extended unpublished monograph on the theoretical work of Nicos Poulantzas. In a shortened version it came to be two chapters from 'The State: a Biography', forthcoming, from Cambridge Scholars Press. Rights Terms of use for work posted in CommonKnowledge. This book chapter is available at CommonKnowledge: https://commons.pacificu.edu/sasw/5 Writing the Revolution : Poulantzas and the Political Project. 1. Context and Biography. There is an unmistakable sense of urgency in the writing of Nicos Poulantzas. Curiously, he was not writing to get tenure – the universe he inhabited was entirely different. He wrote from his experience in Greece, as well as the setting he found himself in Paris., with an intent to understand how revolution could happen, and what might bring it about.
  • Nicos Poulantzas As Historian Jane Caplan

    Nicos Poulantzas As Historian Jane Caplan

    Theories ofFascism: Nicos Poulantzas As Historian Jane Caplan Within a year of each other, in two politicaltical scientscientists, Nicos Poulantzas and Ralph Miliband, published deeply contrasting studies of the state under capitalism, 1 and thereby embarked on a project of mutual criticism that has had a wide airing among Marxists. 2 This interest was hardly surprising. For one thing, the coincidence of the books' publication broke a relative silence on the theory of the state in Marxism, and a debate of some kind was long overdue. Secondly, the debate they provoked went straight to the heart of an already familiar conßict of political cultures, as a resume will show. Poulantzas and Miliband started from theoretical positions that could hardly be more dissimilar, and they became progressively more critical of each other. Miliband's The State in Capitalist Society is a work of dissenting radicalism, forceful, incisive, and politically uncompromis- ing. Yet, as a detailed exposure of the composition, mechanics, and style of Western political systems, it stands firmly within the empirical tradition exemplified by the political sociologist to whom it is dedi- cated, C. Wright Mills. In this sense, its structure, if not its political judgment, conforms to a version of orthodox political theory rooted in Western bourgeois thought. Poulantzas' Political Power and Social Classes, on the other hand, is the heir, through critical modification, of the newer and rather less accessible methodological school associated with the name of Louis Althusser. Its entire problematic and vocabu- lary were far less familiar when it was first published, and correspond to a theoretical rigor quite absent from Miliband's work.
  • Gramsci and International Relations Theory

    Gramsci and International Relations Theory

    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1988 Gramsci and International Relations Theory John Robert Dedrick College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Dedrick, John Robert, "Gramsci and International Relations Theory" (1988). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625465. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-n99s-g006 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GRAMSCI AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Government The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts b y John R. Dedrick 1988 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Maste of Arts ‘ John R. Dedrick Approved, May 1988 David Dessler Chris Kelly ii TABLE OF CONTENTS p a g e ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................... v CHAPTER I. HEGEMONY: