Nicos Poulantzas: Marxist Theory and Political Strategy

397 Pages·1985·1.272 MB·English

by  Bob Jessop

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. For the account presented here is often at odds with
the received wisdom about Poulantzas's work. It would have
extended this book inordinately to have replied to each and
every critique and I have dealt only with criticisms which help
to illuminate the present study. This means that I ignored the
most famous critique of all. For the debate between Ralph Miliband
and Nicos Poulantzas is fundamentally misleading about
the theoretical issues and political implications at stake -
largely because of the complicity between both protagonists in over-
stating the structuralist character of Poulantzas's arguments.
Hopefully this claim will be justified in my comments on Political
Power and Social Classes in subsequent chapters. Similar
considerations apply to many other commentaries and I hope that,
if the current work puts an end to some lines of criticism, it will

xiv
stimulate many others. Poulantzas himself certainly welcomed
ideological contestation as a key to theoretical and political progress
and one can only commend this stance.
In writing this book I have received much support and advice from
my own friends and colleagues as well as those of Poulantzas. For
help with the documentation I would particularly like to thank Petros
Stamoulis for his unstinting work in translating many articles,
journalism, and interviews of Poulantzas from the Greek and for
tracing some of them; George Anagnostopoulos and Grigoris
Ananiadis for tracing and translating other pieces by Poulantzas;
Annie Leclerc for lending me her archive of Nicos's French articles,
journalism, and interviews; Christine Buci-Glucksmann and Isidoro
Cheresky for providing two worthwhile articles at a late stage; and
Noelle Burgi for chasing references in France when all else seemed to
have failed. For help with the argumentation I would particularly like
to acknowledge the many comments received from Simon Bromley,
who suggested -- within one week -- both how to start and to end the
book; Steven Kennedy, who made several valuable comments on the
penultimate draft and whose editorial patience I hope to have
rewarded with the final version; and Ruthy Laniado, whose
questioning sharpened the ideas on strategy in the concluding
chapter. I have also gained much from discussions with Grigoris
Ananiadis, Kevin Bonnett, Anthony Giddens, Joachim Hirsch,
Ernesto Laclau, Tom Ling, Harold Wolpe, and Tony Woodiwiss. The
students on my courses at the University of Essex probably also
heard rather more about Poulantzas than they would always have
liked and gave me the opportunity to try out ideas. For other
kindnesses which have helped to sustain me during this study I
would like to thank Kevin Bonnett for his friendship and
encouragement over many years; Petros and Angeliki Stamoulis for
guiding me round Athens, conducting the Greek interviews, and
offering my family their parents' hospitality; Grigoris Ananiadis and
Blanca Muniz for many conversations about the Greek political
conjuncture and much else besides; Noelle Burgi for hospitality
whilst I was conducting interviews in Paris and Jean-Yves Pôtel for
sharing her burden; and, last but not least, Suzanne Bailey for
helping to see the book to completion at a crucial stage in my life.
Finally I would like to thank New Left Books and New Left Review
for permission to quote from the English translations of Poulantzas’s
books and his critical response to Miliband and Laclau (1976a)
xv
Pamela and Julian Jessop helped with the preparation of the final
typescript and provide a constant source of inspiration. It is to them
that I dedicate this book on the fifth anniversary of Poulantzas's
death and in the hope that they will one day see the better future for
which he struggled.
Bob Jessop,
Cambridge,
3 October, 1984

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