Ideology-focused readings of Marx long obscured his theory of the state

Evidence

We have neglected this aspect here, not only because it has been much written about, and because it constitutes a difficult area of theorizing in itself, but also because the concentration on the problems of ideology has, until recently, obscured the fact that when Marx refers to the superstructures, he is discussing the forms, relations, and apparatuses of the state and civil society, as well as the ideological forms and forms of social consciousness corresponding to them. Since Lenin and Gramsci—until Nicos Poulantzas and Louis Althusser placed the problem once more squarely on the agenda—the superstructures in the true Marxian sense, including the absolutely critical question of the nature of the capitalist state, have been woefully neglected. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 523

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: This is a corrective to the common reduction of Marxism to an ideology critique — resonates with the ‘state autonomy’ debates in political science and with Poulantzas/Miliband.

Related

• Marxist thought neglected the state until Poulantzas and Althusser revived it (similarity 0.94)
• The superstructure exerts real effects despite being ultimately economically determined (similarity 0.82)
• Treating ideology seriously in its own terms strengthens rather than dilutes Marxist analysis (similarity 0.81)
• Later Marx saw superstructures as relatively autonomous rather than mechanically determined (similarity 0.81)
• Economic structures are necessary but not sufficient to explain political and ideological features (similarity 0.81)
• Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once (similarity 0.81)
• Superstructures may require relative autonomy to function at advanced capitalist stages. (similarity 0.80)
• Ideology must be conceived as a terrain of struggle, not just functional cement (similarity 0.80)
• Treating Capital as a complete theory contradicts Marx’s own premise of continuous development. (similarity 0.80)
• Marxism conceives society as overdetermined relatively autonomous levels, not a simple unity (similarity 0.79)
• Serious attention to ideology in its own terms strengthens rather than weakens Marxism. (similarity 0.79)
• Marx never held a simple base-superstructure correspondence view. (similarity 0.79)
• Marx’s theories formed right after democracy’s worst European defeat yet. (similarity 0.79)
• Anglo-Marxists neglected the state while fixating on ideology within the superstructures (similarity 0.79)
• Adopting Gramsci let Hall say things Marxism could not before (similarity 0.78)