Nicos Poulantzas Marxist Theory and Political Strategy Bob Jessop Macmillan, 1985 Prepared for the Internet by Nader Talebi June 2013 Contents Preface xiii Abbrevation xvii PART I LIFE AND EARLY WORKS 1 The Life and Times of Poulantzas 3 The Early Life of Poulantzas 6 The First Years in France 9 The Concerns of the Seventies 15 Un Cri de Mélusine 19 An Approach to the Work of Poulantzas 23 Concluding Remarks 24 2 Existentialism, Marxism, and Law 26 Poulantzas's Preliminary Studies 30 The Nature of Things 33 Other Early Philosophical and Legal Studies 38 A Critique of the Early Poulantzas 42 Concluding Remarks 48 PART II THEORIES OF THE CAPITALIST STATE 3 Towards a Regional Theory of Politics 53 First Thoughts on Hegemony and the State 53 Italian Politics and French Philosophy 57 Methodological Foundations for a Regional Theory 59 State Power and Social Classes 60 The 'Isolation Effect', Class Relations, and the State 63 Fundamental Characteristics of the Capitalist State 65 State Unity and Relative Autonomy 68 Bureaucracy and Bureaucratism 70 Structuralist Marxism and Politicism 72 Juridico-political institutions and class practices 74 The Triple Structure of the Regional Theory 76 Further Difficulties in the Regional Theory 78 Concluding Remarks 81 4 Developing the Regional Theory 84 Economic Determination and Political Dominance 84 Economic Intervention and Class Struggle 87 Economic and Political Crises 90 Normal and Exceptional States 94 ‘Authoritarian Statism’ 97 A Critique of the Regional Economic Theory 103 Poulantzas and State Monopoly Capitalism Theory 108 The Analysis of Political Regimes 111 Concluding Remarks 113 5 From a Regional to a Relational Theory? 114 New Methodological Considerations 115 The State, Class Powers, and Struggles 116 The Capitalist State and the Social Division of Labour 118 Citizenship, Law, and Nation 119 The State and Political Class Struggle 123 The State as a Strategic Terrain 125 A Relational Approach to State Power 128 A Critique of the Relative Autonomy of the State 130 A Critique of the Class Unity of the State 135 The Double Determination of Hegemony 137 Macro-Necessity and Micro-Contingency 141 Concluding Remarks 143 PART III SOCIAL CLASSES, IDEOLOGY, AND CLASS STRUGGLE 6 Social Classes and Class Alliances 149 Early Views on Class 149 Social Classes and Class Powers 151 Some Points of Clarification 153 Two Points of Criticism 156 Social Classes and Relations of Production 159 The Role of Class Struggle in Class Determination 163 Class Determination and Class Position 164 Social Classes and Social Categories 165 The Expanded Reproduction of Social Classes 166 From Structuralist Marxism to Political Strategy 169 The Petty Bourgeoisie 169 The Rural Classes 171 The Interior Bourgeoisie 171 The Primacy of the Political? 173 The Internationalisation of Capital 175 Social Classes and Political Parties 178 Political Parties and Political Representation 180 Social Classes and Social Movements 183 Some Unresolved Difficulties 184 A Way Forward? 188 Concluding Remarks 189 7 Ideology, the State and Ideological Confrontation 191 From Weltanschauungen to Egemonia 191 Towards a Regional Theory of Ideology 194 The Ideological State Apparatus 200 Ideological Sub-Ensembles and Ideological Class Struggle 203 Critique and Counter-Critique 206 In Defense of Poulantzas 212 Intellectuals, Parties, and Ideological Contestation 217 The Division between Mental and Manual Labour 221 Concluding Remarks on Ideological Class Domination 224 PART IV PROBLEMS OF POLITICAL STRATEGY 8 Fascism and Dictatorship 229 The Context of Fascism 229 The Power Bloc and the Crisis of Hegemony 231 The Successive Steps of Fascism 233 Fascism and the Petty Bourgeoisie 235 Fascism in the Countryside 237 Fascism and the Working Class 238 The Rise of Fascism in Retrospect 241 Fascism as an Exceptional State 243 Reorganising the State under Fascism 244 The ISAs and Mass Mobilisation under Fascism 246 How Fascist Regimes Served Monopoly Capital 249 The Resistance to Fascism 252 The Theoretical Critique offered in FD 253 On the Relative Autonomy and Class Functions of Fascism 254 On the Unity of the Fascist State 256 Some Unanswered Questions 258 In Defense of Poulantzas 260 Concluding Remarks 261 9 Military Regimes and Anti-Dictatorial Struggles 263 First Thoughts on the Greek Coup 264 Dependent Industrialisation in Southern Europe 264 The Power Bloc in Dependent States 266 Popular Struggles and Political Crisis 267 Democratisation and the Transition to Socialism 269 The Portuguese Experiment 270 Democratisation - an Overview 271 Anti-dictatorial Alliances and Democratisation 273 Poulantzas on the United Front 273 Poulantzas on the Popular Front 274 Alliance Strategies for Greece 275 Left Unity in Greece? 277 A Critical Appraisal of CD 279 Strategic Conclusions 282 10 The Democratic Transition to Democratic Socialism 284 The Decline of Capitalist Democracy 284 Democratic Socialism 287 Direct and/or Representative Democracy? 288 The Crisis of Political Parties 290 New Social Movements and Democratic Socialism 292 The Working Class and Political Democracy 295 Poulantzas and Left Eurocommunism 295 Poulantzas and Austro-Marxism 298 Some Unresolved Difficulties 299 The Dilemmas of a Democratic Socialist Transition 303 Is a Democratic Transition Possible? 306 Concluding Remarks 309 PART V RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 11 Further Remarks on the Three Sources 313 The Originality of Marx and Poulantzas 313 Poulantzas and French Philosophy 315 Poulantzas and Sartre 315 Poulantzas and Althusser 317 Poulantzas and Foucault 318 Poulantzas and Italian Politics 320 Poulantzas and Romano-German Law 322 The Three Sources Combined 324 Changing Philosophical Positions 325 Althusser, Foucault, and Poulantzas 327 Philosophical Preconditions? 329 The Primacy of Political Involvements 331 Concluding Remarks 332 12 Beyond Poulantzas 336 The State as a Social Relation 336 Poulantzas's Theoretical Agenda 339 Poulantzas and the Concept of Strategy 340 Towards a 'Strategic-Theoretical' Approach 343 Forms of Class Domination 345 Class Hegemonies and Class Strategies 347 Some Points of Clarification 353 Are there Global Strategies? 355 Structure and Strategy 357 An Exceptional Western Marxist? 360 Bibliography for Poulantzas 365 Name Index 379 Subject Index 381 Preface The idea for this book first took shape in early 1979 and it has been some five years in coming to fruition. I have long been interested in theories of the capitalist state in general and the work of Poulantzas in particular. I was able to meet Poulantzas for the first time in April 1979 when he addressed the annual conference of the British Sociological Association at Coventry. There I participated in one of his final interviews (see 1979I.a) and mentioned that I had been approached to write a book on his life and work. With characteristic modesty Nicos thought that it was overdoing things to devote a book to such matters but a month later he wrote saying that he had changed his mind. He declared that no author was completely contemporary with his own intellectual development and that his own work was often hard to understand. Someone who could stand back from it and write a critical interpretation would probably discover hidden aspects and implications and draw out new lines of investigation. Nicos added that he would like to reach a wider audience and hoped that my critique would be less difficult than his own work. Thus encouraged I corresponded further with Poulantzas and we agreed that I should undertake a study with full critical freedom – this was in no way to be an 'official' or 'authorised' account and no punches were to be pulled. In turn Poulantzas promised every co-operation and offered to reply to any criticisms in an interview to be included at the end of the book. Some months afterwards, Poulantzas took his own life. The hopes of many that he would continue to make an important contribution to theoretical and political debate on the left were shattered. But his example as a committed intellectual and political comrade still lives on. Although I was unable to proceed with this work as we had planned, I have received much help from Nicos's wife, Annie Leclerc, and his father, Aristides Poulantzas. Many colleagues, friends, and comrades of Poulantzas also gave much support and encouragement. In particular I would like to thank Christine Buci- Glucksmann and Constantine Tsoucalas for their generous help and support. I also gained much from interviews and discussions with Etienne Balibar, Pierre Birnbaum, Isidoro Cheresky, Georgos Dimitrarkis, Angelos Elephantis, Emilio de Ipola, Kostas Filinis, Nicos Mouzelis, Theodoros Pangalos, Goran Therborn, and Henri Weber. Nonetheless, given the significant theoretical and political differences among them as well as the likely divergences between their views and mine, I take full responsibility for the interpretations and arguments presented below. Choosing an approach to a theoretical and political work which is as rich and complex as that of Poulantzas is always difficult. As my studies proceeded it became increasingly apparent that many interpretations of his work were fundamentally misleading. Accordingly this book concentrates on presenting as full and accurate an account of Poulantzas's theoretical and political development as possible. No account can really be theoretically and political innocent, of course; and I do write from the viewpoint of one who believes that Poulantzas has made a substantial contribution to postwar Marxist theory and whose own work has clearly been influenced by his various studies. It is for this reason that the substantive chapters first offer a reconstruction of Poulantzas's views and then present my own criticisms of some, if not all, of these same arguments. Hopefully readers can then form their own judgements independently of my commentaries and take the opportunity to disagree with my criticisms. The need to set the record straight explains why I have not dealt at length with the many commentaries and criticisms of Poulantzas's work or the numerous studies which claim to apply it to specific case studies.