Hall’s ‘exceptional state’ analysis persists as an open contemporary question
Evidence
One question that this poses to contemporary readers is, what are the significant differences between the two conjunctures? Does the basic shape of social control identified in our analysis persist? Are we still in some kind of “exceptional state”? Or is the neoliberal/“market state” which followed fundamentally different in its modalities? And, if so, what are we to make of the continuing oscillation between free market and “authoritarian populist” impulses? The book, published in 1978, could not have addressed this question. But if its republication provokes the posing of new questions, not just the rehearsal of old ones, the decision to have a second edition will have been vindicated. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1069
Categorization
- QUESTION: Explicit open questions about whether today’s market state differs in kind from the 1970s exceptional state — directly researchable for the lifelong-learner goal.
- XREF: connects to: Whether today’s market state persists the exceptional-state modality remains unresolved; The 1978 analysis of exceptional state and authoritarian populism still frames present-day politics
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Whether today’s market state persists the exceptional-state modality remains unresolved; The 1978 analysis of exceptional state and authoritarian populism still frames present-day politics