Ruling classes rule through class-neutral state structures, not in their own name.

Evidence

Unlike the coercive institutions of the state, these ISA s rule principally through ideology . Althusser recognizes that the ruling classes do not “rule” directly or in their own name and overt interests, but via the necessary displacements, examined earlier, through the “class neutral” structures of the state, and the complexly constructed field of ideologies. But the “diversity and contradictions” of these different spheres in which the different apparatuses function are nevertheless unified “beneath the ruling ideology.” In this arena Althusser gives pride of place to what he calls “the School-Family” couple. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 909

Unlike the coercive institutions of the state, these ISA s rule principally through ideology . Althusser recognizes that the ruling classes do not “rule” directly or in their own name and overt interests, but via the necessary displacements, examined earlier, through the “class neutral” structures of the state, and the complexly constructed field of ideologies. But the “diversity and contradictions” of these different spheres in which the different apparatuses function are nevertheless unified “beneath the ruling ideology.” In this arena Althusser gives pride of place to what he calls “the School-Family” couple. He understands “ruling ideology” here in terms of his exposition (summarized earlier)—as the “system of ideas and representations” by means of which men understand and “live” an imaginary relation to their real conditions of existence: “What is represented in ideology is therefore not the system of the real relations which governs the existence of men, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real relations in which they live.” — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 909

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how ISAs rule through ideology rather than coercion, and identifies the School-Family couple as the privileged site of ideological reproduction.
• XREF: The School-Family couple parallels Gramsci’s account of how education instills hegemony; also resonates with Bourdieu’s reproduction theory. — connects to: Legal formalism masks the class rule behind supposedly impersonal law. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 463; The public and the state are distinct concepts that must not be conflated. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2183
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does Althusser’s ‘imaginary relation to real conditions’ differ from Marx’s commodity fetishism or Gramsci’s hegemony?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 909