Implications of Marxist State Theory and How They Play Out in Venezuela
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The implications of Marxist state theories developed by Nicos Poulantzas and Ralph Miliband are useful for framing issues related to leftist strategy in twenty-first-century Venezuela. A relationship exists between each of the theories and three issues facing the Chavista movement: whether the bourgeoisie (or sectors of it) displays a sense of ‘class-consciousness’; the viability of tactical and strategic alliances between the left and groups linked to the capitalist structure; and whether socialism is to be achieved through stages, abrupt revolutionary changes, or ongoing state radicalisation over a period of time. During Poulantzas’s lifetime, his concept of the state as a ‘strategic battlefield’ lent itself to the left’s promotion of ‘strategic alliances’ with parties to its right. The same concept is compatible with the ‘process of change’ in Venezuela, in which autonomous movements play a fundamental role in transforming the old state and the construction of new state structures.
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Althusser Louis Brewster Ben Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays 1971 New York Monthly Review Press
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Althusser Louis On the Reproduction of Capitalism: Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatuses 2014 [1995] London Verso
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Althusser Louis & Balibar Étienne Brewster Ben Reading ‘Capital’ 1970 London New Left Books
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Arreaza Jorge 2016 Interview with Venezuela’s former Vice-President, currently Higher Education Minister, Barcelona, Venezuela, 25 January.
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Barrow Clyde W. Critical Theories of the State: Marxist, Neo-Marxist, Post-Marxist 1993 Madison, WI. University of Wisconsin Press
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Barrow Clyde W. Wetherly Paul , Barrow Clyde W. & Burnham Peter ‘Ralph Miliband and the Instrumentalist Theory of the State: The (Mis)Construction of an Analytic Concept’ Class, Power and the State in Capitalist Society: Essays on Ralph MiIiband 2008 Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan
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Barrow Clyde W. Toward a Critical Theory of States: The Poulantzas-Miliband Debate after Globalization 2016 Albany SUNY Press
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Bilbao Luis Venezuela en revolución: renacimiento del socialismo 2008 Buenos Aires Editorial Capital Intelectual
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Block Fred ‘The Ruling Class Does Not Rule: Notes on the Marxist Theory of the State’ Socialist Revolution 1977 33 6 28
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Block Fred Miliband Ralph & Saville John ‘Beyond Relative Autonomy: State Managers as Historical Subjects’ Socialist Register 1980 1980 London Merlin Press
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Carrillo Santiago Eurocommunism and the State 1977 London Lawrence and Wishart
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cmr [Corriente Marxista Revolucionaria] ‘El legado de Hugo Chávez: La revolución venezolana y la lucha por el socialismo’ El Militante 2013 April 5 1 4 available at: <http://www.izquierdarevolucionariave.net/index.php/venezuela-b/8317-el-legado-de-hugo-chavez-la-revolucion-venezolana-y-la-lucha-por-el-socialismo>
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Collier Ruth Berins & Collier David Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America 1991 Princeton Princeton University Press
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Coronil Fernando The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela 1997 Chicago University of Chicago Press
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Domhoff G. William The Power Elite and the State: How Policy Is Made in America 1990 New York Aldine de Gruyter
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Ellner Steve ‘Setting the Record Straight on Venezuela’ Jacobin Magazine 2015 December 4 available at: <https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/venezuela-elections-hugo-chavez-maduro/>
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Ferretter Luke Louis Althusser 2006 London Routledge
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Gates Leslie C. Electing Chávez: The Business of Anti-Neoliberal Politics in Venezuela 2010 Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Press
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Haider Asad ‘Bernstein in Seattle: Representative Democracy and the Revolutionary Subject (Part 1)’ Viewpoint Magazine 2016a May 15 available at: <https://viewpointmag.com/2016/05/15/bernstein-in-seattle-representative-democracy-and-the-revolutionary-subject-part-1/>
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Haider Asad ‘Bernstein in Seattle: Representative Democracy and the Revolutionary Subject (Part 2)’ Viewpoint Magazine 2016b May 23 available at: <https://viewpointmag.com/2016/05/23/bernstein-in-seattle-representative-democracy-and-the-revolutionary-subject-part-2/>
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Harnecker Marta ‘Latin America and Twenty-First Century Socialism: Inventing to Avoid Mistakes’ Monthly Review 2010 62 3 3 83 [Special Issue] available at: <https://monthlyreview.org/2010/07/01/latin-america-twenty-first-century-socialism/>
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Harnecker Marta ‘Why Socialism?’ Science and Society 2012 76 2 163 167
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Jessop Bob The Capitalist State: Marxist Theory and Methods 1982 Oxford Martin Robertson
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Jessop Bob Cowling Mark & Martin James ‘The Political Scene and the Politics of Representation: Periodising Class Struggle and the State in the Eighteenth Brumaire’ Marx’s ‘Eighteenth Brumaire’: (Post)modern Interpretations 2002 London Pluto Press
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Jessop Bob State Power: A Strategic Relational Approach 2008 Cambridge Polity Press
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Katz Claudio ‘Dualities of Latin America’ Latin American Perspectives 2015 42 4 10 42
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Lebowitz Michael A. The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development 2010 New York Monthly Review Press
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Lewis William S. ‘Editorial Introduction to Louis Althusser’s “Letter to the Central Committee of the pcf, 18 March 1966” ’ Historical Materialism 2007 15 2 133 151
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Miliband Ralph The State in Capitalist Society: An Analysis of the Western System of Power 1969 New York Basic Books
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Miliband Ralph Marxism and Politics 1977 Oxford Oxford University Press
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Miquilena Luis 2000 Author interview, Caracas, 8 February, available at: <http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2000-August/041693.html>
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Morales Aurora 2004 Interview with the director of ideological formation of the mvr Party, Caracas, 30 March.
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Müller Julian Bretthauer Lars , Gallas Alexander , Kannankulam John & Stützle Ingo Review of Poulantzas lesen. Zur Aktualität marxistischer Staatstheorie Historical Materialism 2009 17 4 143 156
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Ortiz Nelson McCoy Jennifer L. & Myers David J. ‘Entrepreneurs: Profits without Power?’ The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela 2004 Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press
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Poulantzas Nicos ‘The Problem of the Capitalist State’ New Left Review 1969 58 67 78 First Series
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Poulantzas Nicos Fernbach David Classes in Contemporary Capitalism 1975 London New Left Books
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Poulantzas Nicos State, Power, Socialism 1978 London New Left Books
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Poulantzas Nicos ‘Interview with Nicos Poulantzas’ Marxism Today 1979 23 7 194 201
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Rangel Domingo Alberto ‘La boliburguesía’ Correo del Caroní 2006 April 20
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Sader Emir The New Mole: Paths of the Latin American Left 2011 London Verso
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Schemel Oscar 2014 Interview on José Vicente Hoy, Televen, 27 July.
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Seymour Richard ‘Terrifyingly Real: Poulantzas and the Capitalist State’ Lenin’s Tomb 2012 January 25 available at: <http://www.leninology.com/2012/01/terrifyingly-real-poulantzas-and.html>
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Sweezy Paul M. The Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian Political Economy 1942 New York Monthly Review Press
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Thwaites Rey Mabel & Ouviña Hernán Thwaites Rey Mabel ‘La estatalidad latinoamericana revisitada: Reflexiones e hipótesis alrededor del problema del poder política y las transiciones’ El estado en América Latina: continuidades y rupturas 2012 Buenos Aires CLACSO
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Valderrama Toby & Mena Alejandro Rumbo al socialismo 2005 Barcelona (Venezuela) Editorial Fabricio Ojeda
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Woods Alan Reformismo o revolución: Marxismo y socialismo del siglo xxi – Respuesta a Heinz Dieterich 2008 Madrid Fundación Federico Engels
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Woods Alan Cormenzana Pablo ‘Prólogo: Inveval cómo los trabajadores pueden dirigir la sociedad’ La batalla de Inveval: La lucha por el control obrero en Venezuela 2009 Madrid Fundación Federico Engels
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2
Barrow 1993, p. 13. ‘Hard instrumentalism’ especially differs from non-Marxist instrumentalism, which focuses on the disproportionate influence of capitalists on policy-making, but leaves the defence of the capitalist system out of the picture. In doing so, it ignores the ‘class-consciousness’ of the capitalist class, a feature that is central to the thinking of Marxist instrumentalists and is of primary concern for this article. See, for instance, Domhoff 1990, pp. 2–5.
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3
Barrow 2008, pp. 94–5. Ironically, the positions of Miliband and Poulantzas began to converge in the mid-1970s precisely when the exchanges between the two became particularly offensive. One scholar notes that Miliband at this time developed a ‘reconstituted instrumentalist theory’ marked by ‘convergences’ with Poulantzas on a number of issues. Areas of agreement included: the need to struggle simultaneously within and outside of the state in the transition to socialism; the state’s relative autonomy; the ‘principle of a plurality of parties’ on the left in the revolutionary process; and the critique of rightist currents within the Eurocommunist movement (Haider 2016b).
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7
Sweezy 1942, p. 243.
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8
Miliband 1977, p. 83.
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9
Miliband 1969, p. 111.
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10
Miliband 1969, pp. 177–8.
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12
See Block 1977, pp. 8–9.
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13
Block 1980, p. 236.
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15
Poulantzas 1969, p. 78; Althusser 1971, p. 147; Althusser and Balibar 1970, pp. 216–18.
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17
Jessop 2002, pp. 179–94.
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18
Barrow 1993, p. 62.
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19
See Block 1977, pp. 14–19.
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20
Block 1977, pp. 12–13.
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21
Ferretter 2006, pp. 69–70.
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22
Lewis 2007, pp. 140–3. Poulantzas I rejected the pcf’s broad-based anti-monopoly alliance and similarly Garaudy’s ‘new historic bloc’ (Poulantzas 1975, p. 231).
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23
Althusser 2014.
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25
Poulantzas 1978, p. 141.
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26
Poulantzas 1978, pp. 152, 259.
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27
Poulantzas 1978, pp. 129, 131; Poulantzas 1979, p. 198.
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28
Poulantzas 1978, pp. 254, 258.
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29
Poulantzas 1975, pp. 204–5; Jessop 1982, pp. 168–9.
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30
Poulantzas 1979, p. 195.
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31
Poulantzas 1978, p. 257.
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32
Poulantzas 1979, p. 195.
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33
Seymour 2012.
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34
Gates 2010, pp. 26–31.
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35
Coronil 1997.
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36
Katz 2015.
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38
Bilbao 2008, p. 196.
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39
Collier and Collier 1991, p. 333.
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40
Miquilena 2000.
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41
Morales 2004.
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42
Rangel 2006.
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43
As the economic crisis deepened in 2015, leftist Chavista currents such as ‘Marea Socialista’ (ms) hardened their position against Maduro. ms leaders Gonzalo Gómez, Nicmer Evans and others recognised the existence of an economic war consciously waged by the business sector but argued that the term was being used by Maduro to avoid attacking such problems as capital flight and corruption by nationalising the banks and foreign commerce.
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45
Domhoff 1990, pp. 69, 187.
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47
Schemel 2014.
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48
Ellner 2015. The motives of capitalists who rule out costly expansion because they are sceptical about being able to reap sufficient profit due to the policies of an unfriendly government are difficult to determine. The decision may be the result of a simple cost-benefit calculation or may be politically driven with the aim of generating instability either to influence policy or promote regime change. The distinctions between these motives may be hazy and in any case difficult to document.
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49
Woods 2008, p. 415; see also Valderrama and Mena 2005, p. 69.
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51
Woods 2008, pp. 391–2; Woods 2009, pp. 12–14.
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53
See, for instance, Bilbao 2008, pp. 182, 195–6.
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54
Arreaza 2016.
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56
Haider 2016b.
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57
Harnecker 2010, p. 62; see also Harnecker 2012, pp. 166–7; Lebowitz 2010, pp. 152–3; Bilbao 2008, p. 195.
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58
Poulantzas 1979, p. 196.
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59
Carrillo 1977.
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60
Thwaites Rey and Ouviña 2012, pp. 75–8.
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61
Ortiz 2004, pp. 79–81; Gates 2010, pp. 26–31.
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62
Poulantzas 1978, p. 251; Jessop 1982, p. 179; Jessop 2008, p. 118.
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63
Jessop 1982, p. 179.
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64
Poulantzas 1978, p. 141, pp. 259–60.
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65
Lebowitz 2010, pp. 105–9; Sader 2011, p. 138.
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Implications of Marxist State Theory and How They Play Out in Venezuela
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Steve Ellner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The implications of Marxist state theories developed by Nicos Poulantzas and Ralph Miliband are useful for framing issues related to leftist strategy in twenty-first-century Venezuela. A relationship exists between each of the theories and three issues facing the Chavista movement: whether the bourgeoisie (or sectors of it) displays a sense of ‘class-consciousness’; the viability of tactical and strategic alliances between the left and groups linked to the capitalist structure; and whether socialism is to be achieved through stages, abrupt revolutionary changes, or ongoing state radicalisation over a period of time. During Poulantzas’s lifetime, his concept of the state as a ‘strategic battlefield’ lent itself to the left’s promotion of ‘strategic alliances’ with parties to its right. The same concept is compatible with the ‘process of change’ in Venezuela, in which autonomous movements play a fundamental role in transforming the old state and the construction of new state structures.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2690 | 172 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 432 | 12 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 310 | 26 | 2 |
