Marxist thought neglected the state until Poulantzas and Althusser revived it

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

• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘superstructures’ in Marx refers to state and civil society apparatuses, not merely ideology.