Ethical and interventionist state concepts have distinct philosophical and economic origins

Evidence

It seems that the expression veilleur de nuit , which should have a more sarcastic ring than “the State as policeman”, comes from Lassalle. Its opposite should be “ethical State” or “interventionist State” in general, but there are differences between the two expressions. The concept of ethical State is of philosophical and intellectual origin (belonging to the intellectuals: Hegel), and in fact could be brought into conjunction with the concept of State-veilleur de nuit ; for it refers rather to the autonomous, educative and moral activity of the secular State, by contrast with the cosmopolitanism and the interference of the religious-ecclesiastical organisation as a mediaeval residue. The concept of interventionist State is of economic origin, and is connected on the one hand with tendencies supporting protection and economic nationalism, and on the other with the attempt to force a particular State personnel, of landowning and feudal origin, to take on the “protection” of the working classes against the excesses of capitalism (policy of Bismarck and of Disraeli). — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 973

The concept of ethical State is of philosophical and intellectual origin (belonging to the intellectuals: Hegel), and in fact could be brought into conjunction with the concept of State-veilleur de nuit ; for it refers rather to the autonomous, educative and moral activity of the secular State, by contrast with the cosmopolitanism and the interference of the religious-ecclesiastical organisation as a mediaeval residue. The concept of interventionist State is of economic origin, and is connected on the one hand with tendencies supporting protection and economic nationalism, and on the other with the attempt to force a particular State personnel, of landowning and feudal origin, to take on the “protection” of the working classes against the excesses of capitalism (policy of Bismarck and of Disraeli). — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 973

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes the ethical State (Hegelian, secular-educative) from the interventionist State (economic, protective of labor against capitalism).
• XREF: Useful building block: the ethical State’s educative-moral role prefigures how later theorists analyze state cultural production and subject-formation.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 973