UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA GRADUATE SCHOOL CONCEPTUALISATION OF POLITICS AND REPRODUCTION IN THE WORK OF LOUIS ALTHUSSER: CASE OF SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA DISSERTATION Gal Kirn Mentor: prof. Rado Riha Nova Gorica, 2012 2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 11 A NOTE ON TEXT 12 CHAPTER 1: LOUIS ALTHUSSER AND SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA IN POST-MARXIST- SOCIALIST-YUGOSLAV CONTEXT? 13 1.1. BEFORE THE BEGINNING: HOW TO RE-ANIMATE DEAD OBJECTS? 13 1.2. AFTER THE DEATH OF REVOLUTIONARY REFERENTS 20 1.2.1. POST-MARXISM AND LOUIS ALTHUSSER 23 1.2.2. POST-SOCIALISM IN (POST-)YUGOSLAV CONTEXT: AGAINST ANTI-TOTALITARIAN REASON AND YUGONOSTALGIC/LIBERAL MEMORY 29 PART I: ALTHUSSER AND PHILOSOPHY 36 CHAPTER 2: ON ALTHUSSER’S BREAK AND SOLITUDE: POST-ALTHUSSERIAN READINGS OF GREGORY ELLIOTT AND JACQUES RANCIÈRE 36 2.1. ALTHUSSER'S EARLY CONCEPTION OF BREAK: NOVELTY (IN SCIENCE) 36 2.2. ALTHUSSER’S INTERNAL RUPTURE: FROM DEFINITE BREAK TO THE CONTINUATION OF THE BREAK 42 2.3. FROM BREAK TO THEORETICAL SOLITUDE: REFUTATION OF GREGORY ELLIOT’S DEFENCE OF ALTHUSSERIANISM AS TRANSITIONAL FORM 45 2.4. RANCIÈRE’S CHALLENGE: ALTHUSSER, FROM “PURVEYOR OF TRUTH” TO THE CIRCLE MARXISM- COMMUNISM? 52 CHAPTER 3: BETWEEN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH THESIS ON FEUERBACH: ALTHUSSER’S RETURN TO NEW MATERIALISM 68 3.1. INTRODUCTORY CRITICAL NOTES ON ‘ALEATORY MATERIALISM’ 68 3.2. … THE THESES ON FEUERBACH: “ANNOUNCEMENT OF RUPTURE” 73 3.3. THE TENTH THESIS: THE STRUGGLE OF MATERIALISMS, OR ONE DIVIDES INTO TWO STANDPOINTS 74 3.3.1 FROM A TEMPORAL STANDPOINT TO A THEORETICAL STANDPOINT 77 3.3.2. ALTHUSSER’S CONCEPTUALISATION OF THE BREAK IN THE THESES 79 3.4. THE ELEVENTH THESIS: TO TRANSFORM PHILOSOPHY… AND THE WORLD 82 3. 5. PHILOSOPHY-POLITICS-SCIENCE AND THE OSCILLATING DEFINITION OF PHILOSOPHY 84 3.6. NOTE FOR NEXT CHAPTERS 93 PART II: ALTHUSSERIAN THEORY OF POLITICS AND REPRODUCTION 95 CHAPTER 4: ALTHUSSERIAN THEORY OF POLITICS: RETURN TO MACHIAVELLI 95 4.1. RETURN TO POLITICS: FROM LENIN TO MACHIAVELLI 95 4.2. RETURNING MACHIAVELLI TO THE MARXIAN TRADITION? 98 3 4.3. THE THEORETICO-HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF MACHIAVELLI: AGAINST CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, HUMANISM AND “THE ACCOMPLISHED FACT” 102 4.3.1. MACHIAVELLI’S THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY 106 4.3.2 MACHIAVELLI’S FOURTH THESIS: ON NOVELTY 107 4.4. ALTHUSSER’S MACHIAVELLI: POLITICS OF THE ENCOUNTER 109 4.4.1. ON TWO TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE: VERITA EFFETUALE DELLA COSA 110 4.4.2. ON THE ENCOUNTER OF FORTUNA AND VIRTÙ 111 4.4.3. POLITICS OF RUPTURE: THE POLITICAL PROCESS OF DESUBSTANTIALIZATION WITH THE PRINCE AND FORTUNA 115 4.5. THE CASE OF CESARE BORGIA: POLITICAL VOID? 121 4.6. MACHIAVELLI’S NOTES ON THEORY OF REVOLUTION 124 CHAPTER 5: ALTHUSSERIAN THEORY OF REPRODUCTION: STATE, IDEOLOGY AND LAW 131 5.1. MACHIAVELLI’S CONCEPT OF LO STATO: STATE WITHOUT SOVEREIGNTY? 131 5.1.1. MACHIAVELLI’S MANTENERE LO STATO: FROM REVOLUTION TO REPRODUCTION? 133 5.1.2. MANTENERE LO STATO AS AN INSCRIPTION OF CONTINGENCY IN THE NEW STATE? 136 5.2. ALTHUSSERIAN NOTES ON THE THEORY OF TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM 139 5.2.1. MACHIAVELLI MEETS MARX: “PRIMITIVE POLITICAL ACCUMULATION” 145 5.2.2. MACHIAVELLI’S THEOREM: CLASS COMPROMISE IN THE IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL STATE APPARATUS? 149 5.3. THEORY OF REPRODUCTION: SHORT GENEALOGY FROM QUESNAY TO MARX 152 5.4. ALTHUSSERIAN THEORY OF REPRODUCTION: MODE OF REPRODUCTION 156 5.4.1. TOPOGRAPHY REVISITED: OSCILLATING DEFINITIONS OF REPRODUCTION? 162 5.4.2. LOGIC OF REPRODUCTION: FROM “STRUCTURAL CAUSALITY” (“ABSENT CAUSE”) TO “ABSENT” OBJECT OF CLASS STRUGGLE? 164 5.5. THREE FIELDS OF REPRODUCTION: STATE, LAW (AND IDEOLOGY) 171 5.6. ON STATE: APPARATUS OR MACHINERY? 173 5.7. LAW: A REFLEX OF ECONOMIC BASE OR THE INSTANCE OF CAPITALIST REPRODUCTION? 183 5.7.1. CRITIQUE OF “DIVISION OF POWERS”: RISE OF LEGAL STATE 188 5.7.2. LAW: BETWEEN REPRESSION AND MORAL IDEOLOGY 190 5.8. THE WITHERING AWAY OF THE STATE, LAW AND IDEOLOGY? 193 PART III: POLITICAL RUPTURES AND CRITIQUE OF REPRODUCTION ON THE CASE OF SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA 196 CHAPTER 6: THREE REVOLUTIONARY HISTORICAL SEQUENCES: PARTISAN POLITICS, SELF-MANAGEMENT AND THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT 196 6.1. POLITICS OF RUPTURE: FROM PARTISAN POLITICS TO SOCIALIST TRANSITION 196 6.2. WWII AND THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION STRUGGLE (PLS) 199 6.2.1. THE FIGURE OF THE PARTISAN AS A MILITANT POLITICAL SUBJECTIVITY IN WWII 200 6.2.2. SHORT PREHISTORY AND BEGINNINGS OF YUGOSLAV PARTISAN STRUGGLE 204 6.2.3. …AND PEOPLE’S LIBERATION STRUGGLE AS POLITICS OF ENCOUNTER 208 4 6.2.4. THE END OF THE PLS: REVOLUTIONARY TERROR AND PERSONAL REVENGE? 221 6.3. THE SPLIT WITH STALIN: MANY ROADS TO SOCIALISM? 225 6.4. ALIGNMENT TO THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT (NAM) 229 6.5. YUGOSLAV SOCIALIST SELF-MANAGEMENT/AUTO-GESTION/SELF-GOVERNING 236 CHAPTER 7: A CRITIQUE OF SOCIALIST REPRODUCTION IN THE TIMES OF MARKET REFORM 1965-1971: THE CRISIS OF YUGOSLAV SOCIALIST DEVELOPMENT 241 7.1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON STUDIES OF YUGOSLAV SOCIALIST EXPERIENCE 241 7.2. ANTINOMY OF SELF-MANAGEMENT MODEL 252 7.3. MARKET REFORM IN 1965: SOCIALIST REPRODUCTION SHIFTS FROM DECENTRALIZED PLANNING TOWARDS THE MARKET 254 7.4. CRITIQUE OF SOCIALIST REPRODUCTION: CLASS STRUGGLE IN SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA AFTER THE MARKET REFORM 258 7.5. SEPARATION 1: COMPETITION OF ENTERPRISES, FORMATION OF MARKET DISCIPLINE 264 7.5.1. THE NEW ROLE OF BANKS AND GROWING EXTERNAL DEBT IN MARKET SOCIALISM 266 7.5.2. (UNDER)DEVELOPMENT IN YUGOSLAVIA: KOSOVO RELOADED 270 7.6. THE SECOND SEPARATION WITHIN THE ENTERPRISE: THE TECHNOCRACY VS. THE WORKERS 274 7.6.1. WORKERS’ POLITICS: BETWEEN THE TECHNICAL COMPOSITION OF CAPITAL AND WILDCAT STRIKES 277 7.6.2. POLITICS OF EXCLUDED: THE UNEMPLOYED AND AN ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE NEW TYPOLOGY OF WORK 282 7.7. THE ROLE OF LAW IN YUGOSLAV SOCIALISM 288 7.7.1. LAW AS DOMINANT POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF SOCIALIST LEADERSHIP AND AS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PRIMACY OF PRODUCTION FORCES 289 7.7.2. FEW NOTES ON SOCIAL PROPERTY: LEGAL/ECONOMIC ASPECT AND DISPLACEMENT OF CLASS ANTAGONISM 292 7.8. FROM JURIDICAL IDEOLOGY TO IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE: THE HUMANIST FIGURE OF THE SELF- MANAGER, RISE OF NATIONALISM AND LIBERALISM IN THE LATE 1960S 297 7.8.1. FROM THE WORKER TO THE MAN AS KEY AGENT OF SELF-MANAGEMENT? 299 7.8.2. THE COGNITIVE FRAME OF MARKET REFORM AND ECONOMIC CRISIS: LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM COMPETING FOR IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY 306 7.8.3. LIBERALISM AND MARKET FORCES 307 7.8.4. NATIONALISM AND NATION-STATE 311 7.9. SUMMARY 316 8. CONCLUDING REMARKS: FROM ALTHUSSER’S BREAK TO ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE BREAK-UP OF YUGOSLAVIA 319 APPENDICES 330 BIBLIOGRAPHY 332 SLOVENIAN-LANGUAGE SUMMARY 353 5 Abstract The dissertation starts with the diagnosis of the post-Yugoslav context marked by the historical experience of the failure of Yugoslav self-management socialism with its transition to neoliberal capitalism and new nation states. The historical transformation was accompanied by the burial of Marxist theory and theoretical transition to various postmodernist theories and openly nationalist historiographies that legitimize the present state of affairs. Chapter 1 considers thoroughly how to return to two, not only physically, but in the horizon of “post” also symbolically dead objects: Louis Althusser and socialist Yugoslavia. Some perceive these two referents as a historical curiosity, others as spectres that haunt the present. However, more than curious spectres, the author’s wager is to re- animate the scandal that they presented for thought and politics: Althusser’s touching of a traumatic point in the Marxist theory and Yugoslavia representing the first rupture in the international working class movement. How then to extract this core scandal in order to use it for continuous engagement in Marxian theory and to contribute to the necessary historicization of communist sequences and critique of the contradictory development of Yugoslav socialism. The dissertation consists of three equally important parts, which loosely correspond to major fields of Althusser’s work: philosophy and its role (part I); Althusserian theory of politics and reproduction (Part II); and historical study of revolutionary sequences and decline of Yugoslav socialist transition (Part III). The absence of a concrete study of class struggles, which can be perceived as a major limit in Althusser, is taken seriously and expanded in the case study of socialist Yugoslavia. Part I begins with a discussion on the theoretical development of the concept of the break and its relationship with another, less familiar notion of solitude (chapter 2). In the second step I disclose a reading of two post-Althusserian thinkers that in a particular way diagnose a solitude of Althusser’s philosophy: Gregory Elliot, one of the biggest scholars in Althusserian studies and Jacques Rancière, a former student of Althusser, who later turned his pen fiercely against his teacher. While Elliot condemns Althusserianism as the in-between transitional form between Marxism and post-Marxism, Rancière wants to restore Althusser to solitude, where he would be separated from the always-presupposed union of (Marxist) theory and (communist) practice. This question is tackled and answered 6 in detail throughout Chapter 3, where I reconstruct the question of theoretical and political practice through reading of Theses on Feuerbach. This is the central point where Althusser’s definition of the role of philosophy takes a radically different direction that opposed his earlier “theoricist” external position of philosophy that divides between correct/false and his more “politicist” stance of philosophy as revolutionary weapon. His renewed proposal of Marxist philosophy embraces a much more paradoxical position that I named “taking side at a distance”, or “engaged distance”. Criticizing the pragmatist and Stalinist temptation to register and translate theoretical slogans into politics, and thereby subordinates theory to politics, Althusser opens a more intriguing thesis on philosophy, which continues to take sides, but remains at work primarily on its own field, between “scientific” and “ideological” that is “at a distance” from political reality.