Ideological State Apparatuses

Louis Althusser's classic about the domination of workers by the state and elites returns to bookstores at a delicate moment in Brazilian politics.

First published in 1970, the short essay "Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes for Research)" represented a renewal for Marxism. In it, French philosopher Louis Althusser reaffirms his theoretical affiliation and makes innovative contributions to the study of ideology, deepening the understanding of the domination of the state and the ruling classes over workers. His text influenced important intellectuals such as Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Slavoj Žižek.

In this book, Althusser starts from the premise that, if a capitalist society depends on certain conditions of production to exist, it is necessary to reproduce these conditions ad infinitum. As it stands, the state's management of the economy not only allows for the exploitation inherent in the class struggle but also provides the means to maintain this exploitation. Revisiting the Marxist notion that the state is a repressive machine that ensures the extortion of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, Althusser chooses to differentiate between state power and the state apparatus, distinguishing in the latter a repressive bias (a traditional Marxist approach) and also an ideological bias. Thus, he develops a category of institutionalization of the ideology necessary for the state to guarantee the maintenance of the current order. These apparatuses go beyond the use of force; not that the latter becomes dispensable, but also without configuring it as the sole factor of control.

In this dynamic, the worker is born and renewed as a workforce, always coexisting with the ideologies that educate them to reproduce the status quo—the central figure of the School stands out here—and that justify their position in the material world order. These devices form a self-reinforcing system: they instill their roots in the lives of individuals and, in doing so, shape their subjectivities, creating an intricate relationship of domination and subjection. This articulation mitigates the ideology behind institutions by making ideological control an immanent part of each of us.

This edition includes, in addition to the essay in question, a preface with a critical analysis by JA Guilhon de Albuquerque — founder and former director of the Department of Political Science and the Center for International Relations at USP.

“One of the most important Marxist thinkers of the 20th century [...]. His renewal of Marxism represented a liberation for younger generations.” - Radical Philosophy