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Neither an Instrument nor a Fortress
Poulantzas’s Theory of the State and his Dialogue with Gramsci
In: Historical MaterialismPeter Thomas has written an important book that brings forward the full importance of Gramsci’s strategic concepts and the pertinence they have for current theoretical and political debates. Based upon this interpretation of Gramsci, this text attempts a critical reading of the contradictory stance of the Althusserian School towards his work. Using Althusser’s own ambivalence towards Gramsci as a starting-point, the main aim of this article is to reconstruct Poulantzas’s direct and indirect dialogue with Gramsci. Despite Poulantzas’s reservations and criticisms regarding aspects of Gramsci’s work, his theoretical endeavour not only is indebted to Gramsci, but also represents, despite its shortcomings and limits, one of the more original and profound theoretical attempts to come to terms with the theoretical challenges posed by Gramsci’s elaboration on hegemony, hegemonic apparatuses and the ‘integral state’.
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Althusser Louis Brewster Ben Lenin and Philosophy 1971 New York Monthly Review Press
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Althusser Louis Lock Grahame Essays in Self-criticism 1976 London New Left Books
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Althusser Louis Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists & Other Essays 1990 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Lettres à Franca (1961–1973) 1997 Paris Stock/IMEC
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Althusser Louis Solitude de Machiavel et autres textes 1998 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Althusser Louis Brewster Ben For Marx 2005 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Goshgarian G.M. Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978–1987 2006 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Lettres à Hélène 2011 Paris Grasset/IMEC
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Althusser Louis & Balibar Étienne Brewster Ben Reading Capital 1970 London New Left Books
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Balibar Étienne Cinque études du matérialisme historique 1974 Paris Maspero
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Buci-Glucksmann Christine Fernbach David Gramsci and the State 1980 London Lawrence and Wishart
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Goshgarian G.M. ‘Introduction’ 2006 in Althusser 2006
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Gramsci Antonio Quintin Hoare & Nowell-Smith Geoffrey Selections from the Prison Notebooks 1971 London Lawrence and Wishart
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Gramsci Antonio Cahiers de Prison 1978–1996 five volumes Paris Gallimard
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Gramsci Antonio Buttigieg Joseph A. Prison Notebooks 2007 Volume 3 New York Columbia University Press
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Jessop Bob Nicos Poulantzas: Marxist Theory and Political Strategy 1985 Basingstoke Macmillan
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Poulantzas Nicos Fernbach David Classes in Contemporary Capitalism 1975 London New Left Books
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Poulantzas Nicos Poulantzas ‘Les transformations actuelles de l’État, la crise politique et la crise de l’État’ 1976 1976
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Poulantzas Nicos Political Power and Social Classes 1978 London Verso
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Poulantzas Nicos White Judith Fascism and Dictatorship: The Third International and the Problem of Fascism 1979 London Verso
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Poulantzas Nicos State, Power, Socialism 2000 London Verso
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Poulantzas Nicos Martin James The Poulantzas Reader: Marxism, Law and the State 2008 London Verso
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Poulantzas Nicos La Crise de l’État 1976 Paris Presses Universitaires de France/politiques
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Thomas Peter D. The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism 2009 Leiden Brill
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Thomas Peter D. ‘Voies démocratiques vers le socialisme – Le retour de la question stratégique’ 2010 accessed 19 July 2011 available at: <http://www.contretemps.eu/interventions/voies-d%C3%A9mocratiques-vers-socialisme-retour-question-strat%C3%A9gique>
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3
Althusser and Balibar 1970, pp. 119–144. In a letter to Franca Madonia dated 2 July 1965 (Althusser 1997, pp. 623–4), Althusser is even more aggressive towards Gramsci. He thinks that Gramsci’s writings have ‘profound weaknesses’, that Gramsci had never read Marx’s Capital, that he held the Catholic Church as the model for philosophy as world-view and that his theory of ideology is purely formal.
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4
Althusser 2005, pp. 243–5.
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7
Althusser 2006, pp. 139–49. Aspects of this criticism can also be found in other texts of the same period. See for example his 1977 intervention on the crisis of Marxism (Althusser 1998, pp. 267–80).
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10
Thomas 2009, p. 306.
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13
Althusser 1976, p. 72.
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16
Poulantzas 2008, pp. 47–73.
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17
Poulantzas 2008, pp. 139–165.
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20
Poulantzas 2008, p. 77.
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21
Poulantzas 2008, p. 80.
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22
Poulantzas 2008, p. 86.
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24
Poulantzas 2008, p. 92.
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25
Poulantzas 2008, p. 93.
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26
Althusser 2005, pp. 233–4.
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27
Poulantzas 2008, p. 95.
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28
Poulantzas 2008, p. 99.
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29
Poulantzas 2008, p. 104.
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30
Poulantzas 2008, p. 119.
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31
Poulantzas 1978, pp. 137–8.
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32
Poulantzas 1978, p. 140. Some of the earlier formulations of Gramsci’s concepts might seem to justify such a conception of hegemony. ‘A social group dominates antagonistic groups. . . . [I]t leads kindred and allied groups’ (Gramsci 1971, p. 57/Q19, §24 [Q1, §44]). However, as Peter Thomas has noted, ‘[l]eadership-hegemony and domination are therefore conceived less as qualitatively distinct from one another, than as strategically differentiated forms of a unitary political power.’ (Thomas 2009, p. 163.)
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33
Poulantzas 1978, p. 205.
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35
Poulantzas 1978, p. 200.
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36
Jessop 1985, p. 193. For an example of Poulantzas’s criticism, see the following extract: ‘in this use of the concept of hegemony, Gramsci conceals precisely those real problems which he analyzes in the schema of the separation of civil society and the state. These problems, which actually imply the specific autonomy of the instances of the cmp and the effect of isolation in the economic, are masked’ (Poulantzas 1978, p. 139).
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37
Poulantzas 1978, p. 201.
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38
Poulantzas 1979, p. 61.
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39
Poulantzas 1979, p. 299.
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40
Poulantzas 1979, p. 304.
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41
Poulantzas 1975, p. 95.
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42
Poulantzas 1975, p. 98.
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44
Poulantzas 1975, p. 161.
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46
Gramsci 1971, p. 244 (Q15, §10). As Christine Buci-Glucksmann notes, the Prison Notebooks must ‘be seen in their full temporal dimension, isolating the various modalities of a work leading from a deeper investigation of the intellectuals . . . to a new problematic of the state as integral state’ (Buci-Glucksmann 1980, p. 24).
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47
Thomas 2009, p. 137.
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48
Poulantzas (ed.) 1976. An English translation of Poulantzas’s Introduction can be found in in Poulantzas 2008.
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49
Poulantzas 2008, p. 299.
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51
Poulantzas 2008, p. 309.
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53
Poulantzas 2000.
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54
Poulantzas 2000, p. 39.
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55
Poulantzas 2000, p. 49.
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56
Poulantzas 2000, p. 114.
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57
Poulantzas 2000, p. 118.
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60
Poulantzas 2000, p. 212.
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61
Poulantzas 2000, p. 252.
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62
Poulantzas 2000, p. 256.
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63
Poulantzas 2008, p. 341.
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64
Thomas 2010.
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65
Buci-Glucksmann 1980. The original French work was published in 1974.
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66
Thomas 2010.
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67
Thomas 2010.
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69
Poulantzas 2000, pp. 261–2.
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Neither an Instrument nor a Fortress
Poulantzas’s Theory of the State and his Dialogue with Gramsci
In: Historical MaterialismPeter Thomas has written an important book that brings forward the full importance of Gramsci’s strategic concepts and the pertinence they have for current theoretical and political debates. Based upon this interpretation of Gramsci, this text attempts a critical reading of the contradictory stance of the Althusserian School towards his work. Using Althusser’s own ambivalence towards Gramsci as a starting-point, the main aim of this article is to reconstruct Poulantzas’s direct and indirect dialogue with Gramsci. Despite Poulantzas’s reservations and criticisms regarding aspects of Gramsci’s work, his theoretical endeavour not only is indebted to Gramsci, but also represents, despite its shortcomings and limits, one of the more original and profound theoretical attempts to come to terms with the theoretical challenges posed by Gramsci’s elaboration on hegemony, hegemonic apparatuses and the ‘integral state’.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 501 | 80 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 74 | 12 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 107 | 31 | 2 |