This article presents the inaugural memorial lecture at the Nicos Poulantzas Institute in Athens.... more This article presents the inaugural memorial lecture at the Nicos Poulantzas Institute in Athens. It examines and extends the work of the eponymous Greek legal and political theorist, political economist, and communist intellectual, Nicos Poulantzas, who radically transformed Marxist state theory, made major contributions to the critique of political economy for the era of Atlantic Fordism and postwar American imperialism, and called for a judicious balance between representative and direct democracy to secure a democratic transition to democratic socialism. It first offers some general reflections on the originality, legacy and actuality of Poulantzas's work in these respects and then reconstructs his later views on the critique of political economy before his death in 1979. Noting his neglect of the environment and issues of political ecology, which was typical of the French and Greek left in the 1970s and also rooted in more general features of Marxist theorizing on nature and the environment, the article elaborates a Poulantzasian view of political ecology based on key arguments from his work. The article concludes by reasserting the validity of his vision of democratic socialism, indicating that it would have become a critique of political ecology, and suggests that he would have approached this in the same spirit of romantic public irony that was advocated by one of his major theoretical and political influences – Antonio Gramsci.
Cet article présente la première conférence commémorative à l'Institut Nicos Poulantzas à Athènes. Il examine et étend le travail du théoricien juridique et politique grec, Nicos Poulantzas, économiste politique et intellectuel communiste, qui a radicalement transformé la théorie de l'Etat marxiste et apporté une contribution majeure à la critique de l'économie politique pour l'ère du fordisme atlantique. Il réclame un équilibre judicieux entre démocratie représentative et démocratie directe pour assurer une transition démocratique vers le socialisme démocratique. J'offre quelques réflexions générales sur l'originalité, l'héritage et l'actualité de l'oeuvre de Poulantzas à cet égard, puis reconstruit ses vues ultérieures sur la critique de l'économie politique avant sa mort en 1979. L'article élabore une vision poulantzasienne de l'écologie politique fondée sur des arguments clés De son travail. Il note sa négligence par rapport à l'environnement naturel et les questions d'écologie politique, typiques de la gauche française et grecque dans les années 1970, et visible dans la théorie marxiste sur la nature et l'environnement. L'article conclut en réaffirmant la validité de sa vision du socialisme démocratique, indiquant qu'il serait devenu une critique de l'écologie politique, et suggère qu'il aurait abordé cela dans le même esprit d'ironie romantique et publique qui a été préconisé par l'un de ses grandes influences théoriques et politiques-Antonio Gramsci.
Este artículo presenta la conferencia inaugural conmemorativa en el Nicos Poulantzas Institute en Atenas. Aquí se examina y profundiza en el trabajo del epónimo griego, Nicos Poulantzas, quien transformó radicalmente el estado del Marxismo teórico. La mayor contribución del teórico político y legal, economista político, y comunista intelectual, fue su crítica a la política económica de la era del Fordismo Atlántico y el Imperialismo estadounidense de la post-guerra, e invitó a un perspicaz balance entre la democracia representativa y la democracia directa para asegurar la transición social demócrata. Este artículo ofrece, primeramente, reflexiones generales sobre la originalidad, legado y actualidad del trabajo de Poulantza, y también reconstruye sus últimos acercamientos a la crítica de la política económica antes de su muerte en 1979. Notando su falta de atención en el medio ambiente y asuntos de ecología política, producto de la izquierda Francesa y Griega de los años setenta y aspectos generales del marxismo teórico sobre naturaleza y medio ambiente, este artículo elabora una perspectiva desde Poulantzas sobre ecología política y con base en los principales argumentos de su trabajo. El artículo concluye con una recopilación de la validez sobre su visión respecto al socialismo democrático, indicando que se habría convertido en una crítica sobre ecología política, y sugiere que Poulantzas se habría aproximado con el mismo espíritu de la romántica ironía pública que fue promovida por uno de sus mayores influencias teóricas y políticas: Antonio Gramsci.
Το άρθρο αυτό παρουσιάζει την ετήσια διάλεξη στο Ινστιτούτο Νίκος Πουλαντζάς στην Αθήνα, προς μνήμη του Νίκου Πουλαντζά, του οποίο το έργο εξετάζει και αναπτύσσει. Ο Πουλαντζάς, ένας θεωρητικός της πολιτικής επιστήμης, οικονομολόγος και κουμουνιστής διανοούμενος, μεταμόρφωσε ριζοσπαστικά την μαρξιστική θεωρία για το κράτος, και συνέβαλλε καθοριστικά στην κριτική της πολιτικής οικονομίας την περίοδο του ατλαντικού φορντισμού και του μεταπολεμικού αμερικανικού ιμπεριαλισμού, καλώντας για μια προσεκτική ισορροπία μεταξύ αντιπροσωπευτικής και άμεσης δημοκρατίας, εχέγγυο για την δημοκρατική μετάβαση σε έναν δημοκρατικό σοσιαλισμό. Το άρθρο αυτό προσφέρει σκέψεις σχετικά με την πρωτοτυπία, ιστορική σημασία, και επικαιρότητα του έργου του Πουλαντζά, ανασυνθέτοντας τις ύστερες θέσεις του στην κριτική στην πολιτική οικονομία πριν τον θάνατό του το 1979. Αν και είναι δεδομένη στο έργο του η παράλειψη της διάστασης του περιβάλλοντος και της πολιτικής οικολογίας, χαρακτηριστική της γαλλικής και της ελληνικής αριστεράς την δεκαετία του 70 και με ρίζες στην μαρξιστική θεωρητική προσέγγιση της φύσης, το παρών άρθρο επεξεργάζεται μία κατά Πουλαντζά θεωρία της πολιτικής οικολογίας, αντλώντας επιχειρήματα από το έργο του. Επιβεβαιώνεται εδώ η εγκυρότητα του οράματος του Πουλαντζά για τον δημοκρατικό σοσιαλισμό το οποίο θα μπορούσε να είχε εξελιχθεί σε μία κριτική της πολιτικής οικολογίας, την οποία ο Πουλαντζάς θα είχε προσεγγίσει με το ίδιο πνέυμα της ρομαντικής και δημόσιας ειρωνείας την οποία πρότασσε ο θεωρητικός και πολιτικός ο οποίος περισσότερο τον επηρέασε, ο Αντόνιο Γκράμσι.
This paper presents a theoretical critique and reformulation of the concept of the developmental ... more This paper presents a theoretical critique and reformulation of the concept of the developmental state from a regulationist perspective and applies the new notion to the changing role of the developmental state in the emerging period of the so-called knowledge driven economy. The analysis can be divided into five sections: (a) reflections on political economy of market forces and state power; (b) the specificities of the developmental state; (c) the periodisation of capitalism; (d) the emerging knowledge-driven economy; and (e) the changing role of the state in regard to the ‘new economy’. Following a discussion of these issues, I offer some more general conclusions on the developmental state in East Asia.
Governance is clearly a notion whose time has come. It appears to move easily across philosophica... more Governance is clearly a notion whose time has come. It appears to move easily across philosophical and disciplinary boundaries, diverse fields of practical application, the manifold scales of social life, and different political camps and tendencies. This terminological mobility enables it to organize significant narratives about contemporary social transformation. Yet it is also clear that governance is a polyvalent and polycontextual notion. Its meaning varies by context and it is being deployed for quite contrary, if not plain contradictory, purposes. And, by virtue of these terminological uncertainties, it is doubtful whether governance sans phrase can really provide a compelling theoretical entrypoint for analysing contemporary social transformation or a compelling practical entrypoint for coping with complexity. It is this paradox that I wish to pursue and resolve in the following reflections on governance, with the ultimate intention of providing a clear account of the nature and limitations of governance and metagovernance in a complex world. I will illustrate my more general arguments as appropriate from the case of ‘good governance’, which provides an interesting example of the constitutionalization and ethicalization of governance discourse and practices.
Conjunctural analysis is useful in many fields but has special theoretical and practical signific... more Conjunctural analysis is useful in many fields but has special theoretical and practical significance for critical political economy and left strategy. For the pursuit of politics as " the art of the possible " depends heavily on correct conjunctural analysis and is practised by most successful political forces. Its central role for left politics is seen in the analyses of Hall, among many others. For Lenin, the central focus of political analysis and action is the concrete analysis of a concrete situation (1920: 165) oriented to the correlation of forces. And, for Althusser, the key concept of a Marxist science of politics is the conjuncture: " the exact balance of forces, state of overdetermination of the contradictions at any given moment to which political tactics must be applied " (1970: 311). A sound conjunctural analysis depends on: (a) an appropriate set of concepts for moving from basic structural features to immediate strategic concerns; (b) the spatio-temporal horizons of action that define the conjuncture; (c) a clear account of medium-and long-term goals that should guide strategy and tactics in the current moment; and (d) ethico-political commitments that set limits to acceptable action in particular contexts on the grounds that the ends do not always justify any means. Moreover, because one's strategy depends on the likely responses of other key social forces, one must map their conjunctural analyses too. There is scope for infinite reciprocal regress here but it is lower in periods of relative stability that promote stable expectations or, conversely, in the face of urgent crises calling for immediate action. Multi-faceted crises that build over time with sudden, acute phases are more disorienting and place the heaviest demands on conjunctural analysis.
The regulation approach (hereafter 'RA') has enjoyed acclaim for some twenty years as a leading p... more The regulation approach (hereafter 'RA') has enjoyed acclaim for some twenty years as a leading paradigm in the revival of institutional and evolutionary economics and the more general development of 'new political economy'. Its several schools all adopt a heterodox account of capital accumulation and emphasise the latter's socially embedded, socially regularized nature. They focus on the historically contingent ensembles of complementary economic and extra-economic mechanisms and practices which enable relatively stable accumulation to occur over relatively long periods despite the fundamental contradictions, crisis-tendencies, and conflicts generated by capitalism (on different schools, see Jessop 1990). These ideas have been applied most famously to 'Fordism' and 'post-Fordism' and extensive interest therein from the mid-80s to mid-90s certainly contributed to the RA's popularity. But even the initial Parisian work addressed other topics and subsequent work has seen a real deepening and widening of the regulation approach far beyond issues of Fordism and/or post-Fordism.
These more recent trends are my primary concern below. Since a short survey cannot cover all relevant material, I will provide a general account of the RA's successive generations and developmental trajectories. I then illustrate this account by reviewing the Parisian 'state of the art' and the theoretical innovations introduced by other theorists. I also consider the RA's responses to the failure of its initial alternative economic strategy (due, it should be noted, to lack of adoption rather than subsequent implementation failure) and its relative isolation within mainstream economics; and I also examine how the RA's message has been received and understood outside the discipline of economics. I conclude by asking whether the twenty years of research, scholarship, and exposition invested in the RA have been worth the effort (the standard RA survey is Boyer 1990; on more recent work, see also Boyer and Saillard 1995a).
Restructuring and reorienting socialist economies is an integral but also deeply problematic aspe... more Restructuring and reorienting socialist economies is an integral but also deeply problematic aspect of their post-socialist transformation. The full range of problems involved here emerges most clearly when one recognizes at the outset that economic activities themselves are always socially embedded and socially regulated and that they are also overdetermined by various geo- political, socio-cultural, and other non-economic factors. There are no pure market economies nor could there be. This enables us to identify at least four major problem-complexes which affect economic restructuring in post-socialist conditions. First, any post-socialist transformation would involve not only structural disembedding of emergent market forces from their erstwhile state socialist straitjacket but also re-embedding them into an institutional framework which could help to regularize accumulation. Second, post-socialist economies must escape from one- sided economic dependence on their inherited links to former Comecon economies and move towards closer integration in the world capitalist system. This process is complicated by the problems involved in managing the economic (and political) disintegration of the Soviet bloc (cf. Andreff 1993) as well as the uncertainties related to major changes occurring in capitalism independently of those provoked by the Soviet collapse. A third problem-complex is tied to the collapse of the bipolar security regime which emerged during the Cold War and the resulting need to build a post-socialist security order for Eurasia which recognizes various ‘spheres of interest’ and the legitimate security needs of the USA, West European states, and the successor states in the Soviet bloc (cf. Tökés 1991: 102-105). And, fourth, there are serious problems for any economic transformation rooted in the complex and controversial politics of post-socialist identity construction, nation-building, and state formation.
The conference which inspired this collection was explicitly concerned with the direction of cont... more The conference which inspired this collection was explicitly concerned with the direction of contemporary capitalism. Its final plenary session, to which my own contribution was presented, addressed the historical place and destiny of capitalism. Surprisingly, few papers at the conference explored the basic nature of capitalism, its genesis, overall dynamic, or future. Yet only by examining such issues can one usefully comment on the historical place, the direction, or destiny of capitalism or draw relevant political conclusions. Thus I first consider whether capitalism has a distinctive dynamic and, if so, what this might mean for its future. I argue that it does, indeed, show important developmental tendencies. However, as these are not linked to any final telos, capitalist development remains open within very broad limits. Accordingly I do not try to forecast the long-run future or ultimate destiny of capitalism. Instead I discuss several major economic changes in contemporary capitalism, consider whether they involve a break in capitalist development, and suggest some medium-term implications for the national state and governance mechanisms.
This article explores the roles of markets, states, and partnerships in economic coordination and... more This article explores the roles of markets, states, and partnerships in economic coordination and considers their respective tendencies to failure. The first section addresses the growing interest in governance and seeks explanations in recent theoretical developments. The second section then asks whether the rise of the governance paradigm might also reflect fundamental shifts in economic, political, and social life, such that governance will remain a key issue for a long time, or is a response to more cyclical shifts in modes of coordination. The third section considers the logic of ‘heterarchic governance’ in contrast to anarchic, ex post coordination through market exchange and imperative ex ante coordination through hierarchical forms of organization. It also offers some preliminary reflections on the nature, forms, and logic of ‘governance failure’. The final section addresses the state’s increasing role in ‘meta-governance’, i.e., in managing the respective roles of these different modes of coordination.
This paper presents the relations among agency (A), structure (S), institutions (I) and discourse... more This paper presents the relations among agency (A), structure (S), institutions (I) and discourse (D) and their analytical relevance for socioeconomic development. It argues that an adequate account of these relations must recognize their inherent spatio-temporality and, hence, their space-time dynamics. This is not an optional extra but a definite descriptive and explanatory requirement. Moreover, while structure is recognized as a product of path-dependent institutionalization and path-shaping (collective) agency, agency is seen in turn as discursively and materially reproduced and transformed. This approach treats structure in terms of a differential spatio-temporal configuration of constraints and opportunities, reference to which informs the empirical analysis of strategic agency within the overall ASID heuristic. The paper concludes with an eightfold typology of particular combinations of ASID features to guide analyses of socioeconomic development in all its (dis-)junctural complexity.
This article explores depoliticization in relation to the three domains of polity, politics, and ... more This article explores depoliticization in relation to the three domains of polity, politics, and policy, distinguishing its different meanings in these three contexts, identifying different strategies of depoliticization corresponding to each domain, and exploring their interconnections. Politicisation and repoliticization can be explored in the same manner. The analysis is illustrated from the strategies of depoliticization pursued in relation to the fiscal cliff debate in the USA and the constitutionalization of the Fiscal Compact in the Eurozone, Some general conclusions are also offered.
This article describes the meta-theoretical and theoretical foundations of one approach to critiq... more This article describes the meta-theoretical and theoretical foundations of one approach to critique that moves through up to eight analytically distinct steps. This critique begins with the identification of specific discourses and discursive practices and moves progressively towards a critique of ideology and domination and then to a critique of the factors and actors that, through diverse mechanisms of variation, selection, and retention, reproduce these ideological effects and patterns of domination as a basis for proposing and acting upon emancipatory projects that involve a variable mix of reform and revolution. An important part of these procedures is to deconstruct and demystify sedimented, naturalized discourses and social practices and to propose alternatives based on explicitly stated principles of justice and fairness.
Faced with the devastating electoral and political successes of Thatcherism in the past five year... more Faced with the devastating electoral and political successes of Thatcherism in the past five years, the British Left responded in various ways. Some activists anticipated the imminent collapse of Thatcherism due to a sudden upsurge of union militancy, popular disturbances, or urban riots; or due to a Conservative U-turn prompted by rising unemployment and political unrest. Others called for the Labour Party to adopt more radical economic and political policies and to restructure itself as a vehicle for the eventual implementation of a socialist alternative economic strategy. They hoped that this would undermine Thatcherism by refuting its claim that there is no alternative; or that it would at least give the left the initiative when Thatcherism collapsed for other reasons. Yet others concentrated on the ideology of Thatcherism and called for a similarly ideological strategy from the Left. They attributed Thatcherism's success to the initiatives of the new Right in constructing a new hegemonic project and mobilizing popular support for a right-wing solution to the economic and political crisis. Complementing this apparent celebration of Thatcherism is the charge that the Left has failed to adopt a 'national-popular' approach of its own to ideological and political struggle and has fallen back on economistic or voluntaristic analysis of the growing crisis of social democracy and the Left in Britain. This last approach is represented above all in the work of Stuart Hall, but it has since been adopted quite widely on the left. The guiding thread of Hall's work is the argument that Thatcherism rests on 'authoritarian populism'. He argues that 'authoritarian populism' (hereafter 'AP') successfully condenses a wide range of popular discontents with the postwar economic and political order and mobilizes them around an authoritarian, right-wing solution to the current economic and political crisis in Britain. This success is regarded with begrudging admiration because Thatcherism took the ideological struggle more seriously than the Left and has reaped the reward of popular support. Some conclude that the Left must articulate Thatcherite themes into its own discourse, but others, such as Hall, insist that Thatcherism can best be defeated by developing an alternative vision of the future, a socialist morality, and a socialist common-sense. Thus the apparent ideological
In this excellent book Brett Christophers offers an intriguing, historically informed but partial... more In this excellent book Brett Christophers offers an intriguing, historically informed but partially inadequate response to a significant deficit in the regulationist analysis of political economy. Regulationists ask why, despite its inherent contradictions and crisis tendencies, capital accumulation proceeds relatively smoothly for significant periods in specific spatio-temporal settings. They explain this through the trial-and-error emergence and consolidation of specific growth regimes and corresponding modes of re ́ gulation-cum- governance that, together, create complementary institutional forms and social norms and values that facilitate the integration of different circuits of capital and the development of a workable social compromise. Christophers notes correctly that regulationists often neglect the role of law, litigation, and judicial decision-making in securing this improbable result. This deficit is unfortunate because, as he rightly claims, law has a key role in modulating the balance between simultaneous tendencies to competition and monopoly in ‘capitalist regimes of profitability and growth’. He then explores this topic in two steps: a theoretical account of the complex dialectics of competition and monopoly that frames detailed studies of three successive periods in the development of anti-trust law, which aims to limit monopoly in favour of competition, and of intellectual property rights (IPRs), which are intended to fashion and protect monopoly. (2016: 4).
This article relates changes in higher education and research in East Asian societies to recent t... more This article relates changes in higher education and research in East Asian societies to recent trends in political economy and, in particular, the reorientation of developmental states in the region. The developmental state is oriented to catch-up competitiveness and, as the horizon of development shifts, so do its appropriate institutional forms and strategies. Catch-up competitiveness is guided by economic imaginaries, often linked to geoeconomic, geopolitical, and broader societal imaginaries, whose hegemony depends on particular discursive and disciplinary practices. The shift in the roles of HE and research is related to the reorientation of developmental states from export-oriented, investment-led growth to knowledge- intensive, investment-led growth, supplemented in some cases by efforts to create international financial hubs to exploit a global trend towards financialisation. These themes are explored through comparison of selected East Asian economies/societies. The article ends with some general conclusions about the state’s continuing role in higher education and its internationalisation in the region.
The Brexit vote was a singular event that is one symptom of a continuing organic crisis of the Br... more The Brexit vote was a singular event that is one symptom of a continuing organic crisis of the British state and society and a stimulus for further struggles over the future of the United Kingdom and its place in Europe and the wider world. This crisis previously enabled the rise of Thatcherism as a neoliberal and neoconservative project (with New Labour as its left wing) with an authoritarian populist appeal and authoritarian statist tendencies that persisted under the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition (2010 – 2015). The 2015 election of a Conservative Government, which aimed to revive the Thatcherite project and entrench austerity, was the immediate context for the tragi-comedy of errors played out in the referendum. The ensuing politics and policy issues could promote the disintegration of the UK and, perhaps, the EU without delivering greater political sovereignty or a more secure and non-balkanized place for British economic space in the world market.
Restructuring and reorienting socialist economies is an integral but also deeply problematic aspe... more Restructuring and reorienting socialist economies is an integral but also deeply problematic aspect of their post-socialist transformation. The full range of problems involved here emerges most clearly when one recognizes at the outset that economic activities themselves are always socially embedded and socially regulated and that they are also overdetermined by various geo-political, socio-cultural, and other non-economic factors. There are no pure market economies nor could there be. This enables us to identify at least four major problem-complexes which affect economic restructuring in post-socialist conditions. First, any post-socialist transformation would involve not only structural disembedding of emergent market forces from their erstwhile state socialist straitjacket but also re-embedding them into an institutional framework which could help to regularize accumulation. Second, post-socialist economies must escape from one-sided economic dependence on their inherited links to former Comecon economies and move towards closer integration in the world capitalist system. This process is complicated by the problems involved in managing the economic (and political) disintegration of the Soviet bloc (cf. Andreff 1993) as well as the uncertainties related to major changes occurring in capitalism independently of those provoked by the Soviet collapse. 3 A third problem-complex is tied to the collapse of the bipolar security regime which emerged during the Cold War and the resulting need to build a post-socialist security order for Eurasia which recognizes various 'spheres of interest' and the legitimate security needs of the USA, West European states, and the successor states in the Soviet bloc (cf. Tökés 1991: 102-105). And, fourth, there are serious problems for any economic transformation rooted in the complex and controversial politics of post-socialist identity construction, nation-building, and state formation. It is impossible for this chapter to deal with all four sets of issues. Instead it focuses on the former Comecon (or CMEA) countries and reviews the relations between their attempts to move from state socialism to capitalism and proposals for regional
The two studies included in this issue of the IJPE focus on the public finances of post-socialist... more The two studies included in this issue of the IJPE focus on the public finances of post-socialist Poland at a turning point, or better, an epochal shift, which, if it does not yet signal the ‘end of history’, clearly marks the beginning of a new, world-historical period in capitalist development. Moreover, as Schumpeter’s remarks clearly anticipated, the crisis of post-socialist public finances not only reflects events beyond the state but also has its own effects on the crisis dynamics in these societies. It is in this spirit that Stanislav Owsiak and Jerzy Hausner seek to explain the origins and causal impact of the crisis in public finances in post-socialist Poland. Although Owsiak focuses on the transitional deficit in public finances and Hausner on the deeper-seated structural contradictions, strategic dilemmas, and competing paths involved in moving from a command to a market economy, their studies complement each other and provide a good overall picture of the financial crisis of the post-socialist state from both economic and political aspects.
Among the most important factors generating this financial crisis they cite: (a) various economic and political difficulties inherited from the ‘shortage economy’ associated with state socialism; (b) the economic disruption and transitional deficit occasioned by the abandonment of state socialism and neo-liberal efforts to move towards a market economy; (c) economic policy mistakes which have aggravated this inevitable disruption and its associated financial deficit and thereby further worsened the political crisis; (d) political commitments to various forms of economic and social expenditure required by a transitional political regime desperate to secure its legitimacy; and (e) the political crises provoked by badly flawed efforts to democratize the political system at the same time that efforts are being made to liberalize the economy. In addition to identifying various causal factors contributing to the financial crisis of the post-socialist state, they also trace the reciprocal influence of this crisis on the economic and political difficulties now affecting post-socialist Poland. They conclude, hardly surprisingly, that, given the lack of system integration (‘systemic vacuum’) and the failure to develop any coherent hegemonic project for restructuring post-socialist societies (‘strategic vacuum’), the financial crisis tends to make things worse rather than better. In particular it reduces the prospects of effective co-ordination of economic and political reform and also necessitates cuts in public expenditure which threaten the legitimacy of the overall transformation process.
In a number of articles and two recent books Joachim Hirsch and his colleagues have developed a n... more In a number of articles and two recent books Joachim Hirsch and his colleagues have developed a novel Marxist approach for analyzing capitalist societies (Esser and Hirsch, 1984, 1985, 1987; Haeusler and Hirsch, 1987; Hirsch, 1980, 1983a, 1983b, 1984; and Hirsch and Roth, 1980 and 1986). They combine a fresh perspective on the political economy of capitalism with their own theoretical work on the capitalist state; and apply this approach to a wide range of phenomena - from the nuclear family and the city through party systems and corporatist arrangements to social movements and new forms of subjectivity. Since the scope of these studies is too wide for a comprehensive review in a short article, my critique focuses on their general theoretical strengths and weaknesses and their implications for analyzing the crisis of Fordism and the transition to post-Fordism.
Despite their very different assumptions and principles of explanation, monetarists, Keynesians a... more Despite their very different assumptions and principles of explanation, monetarists, Keynesians and Marxists share a concern with the nature and impact of state intervention in capitalist economies. Yet, in contrast to the study of market forces, the state itself is strangely neglected as a field of analysis. This is as true of theories that presuppose an active role for the state as of those that entail a more limited role. Indeed, even though Marxists have long claimed special knowledge of the strategic significance of the state in class struggle, it is only in the last ten years that they have rediscovered the state as a problem in political economy. The resulting discussion has ranged from the most abstract methodological issues to quite specific historical problems and has generated a variety of hypotheses and insights. It is unfortunately true that much of the Marxist debate is esoteric and often inaccessible and/or irrelevant to those working in other traditions. But, in the absence of any comparable reappraisal of the state, this debate merits wider consideration. Moreover, since Marxism has long been concerned with the state as well as with production and exchange, it is surely worth assessing to what extent an integrated approach can illuminate economic analysis. Such an enquiry is particularly germane in the current period of continuing world economic crisis and increasing state intervention to restructure the industrial and financial system.
It should be emphasized that the present survey is not concerned with Marxist economics as such. Instead it instead on some recent Marxist theories of the capitalist state. Nor does it develop a new approach; it simply considers these theories in terms of certain given criteria. These comprise general criteria such as logical consistency and theoretical determinacy, as well as more specific criteria relevant to an evaluation of Marxist theories. The latter can be stated quite briefly as follows. A Marxist theory of the capitalist state will be considered adequate to the extent that (a) it is founded on the specific qualities of capitalism as a mode of production, (b) it attributes a central role to class struggle in the process of capital accumulation, (c) it establishes the relations between the political and economic features of society without reducing one to the other or treating them as totally independent and autonomous, (d) it allows for historical and national differences in the forms and functions of the state in capitalist societies, and (e) it allows for the influence of non-capitalist classes and non-class forces in determining the nature of the state and the exercise of state power. To justify the choice of these particular criteria would sidetrack the discussion before it begins; it is hoped that their relevance and importance will emerge as we proceed.
The paper starts with a short review of the approach of Marx and other classical Marxist theorists to the capitalist state. Several different themes in their work are specified and their merits and demerits considered. This provides a framework within which to assess recent developments. Some variations on the themes of the classical texts are then examined and criticized for their failure to advance the Marxist theory of the state. This brings us to the central part of the paper, which deals with recent theories of the capitalist state, evaluated in the light of our criteria. The paper concludes with some general remarks on Marxist analyses of state power in capitalist societies and their implications for other theoretical approaches.
Capitalist growth regimes are analysed drawing on Marx's insights into capital's fundamental cont... more Capitalist growth regimes are analysed drawing on Marx's insights into capital's fundamental contradictions, regulation theoretical arguments about the five basic structural forms of accumulation regimes and their modes of regulation, historical geographical materialism's emphasis on spatio-temporal fixes, and state-theoretical accounts of government and governance in the shadow of hierarchy. This framework is then applied to four growth regimes: Atlantic Fordism, two (among many) alternative post-Fordist trajectories-the knowledge-based economy, finance-dominated capitalism-and a radical 'no-growth' variant of the 'Green New Deal'. The article highlights the crisis-tendencies of the first three and assesses whether the Green New Deal represents an alternative route out of crisis or is the capture of an eco-social project by the forces that brought us finance-dominated accumulation. It concludes with a future research agenda.
Uploads
Articles by Bob Jessop
Cet article présente la première conférence commémorative à l'Institut Nicos Poulantzas à Athènes. Il examine et étend le travail du théoricien juridique et politique grec, Nicos Poulantzas, économiste politique et intellectuel communiste, qui a radicalement transformé la théorie de l'Etat marxiste et apporté une contribution majeure à la critique de l'économie politique pour l'ère du fordisme atlantique. Il réclame un équilibre judicieux entre démocratie représentative et démocratie directe pour assurer une transition démocratique vers le socialisme démocratique. J'offre quelques réflexions générales sur l'originalité, l'héritage et l'actualité de l'oeuvre de Poulantzas à cet égard, puis reconstruit ses vues ultérieures sur la critique de l'économie politique avant sa mort en 1979. L'article élabore une vision poulantzasienne de l'écologie politique fondée sur des arguments clés De son travail. Il note sa négligence par rapport à l'environnement naturel et les questions d'écologie politique, typiques de la gauche française et grecque dans les années 1970, et visible dans la théorie marxiste sur la nature et l'environnement. L'article conclut en réaffirmant la validité de sa vision du socialisme démocratique, indiquant qu'il serait devenu une critique de l'écologie politique, et suggère qu'il aurait abordé cela dans le même esprit d'ironie romantique et publique qui a été préconisé par l'un de ses grandes influences théoriques et politiques-Antonio Gramsci.
Este artículo presenta la conferencia inaugural conmemorativa en el Nicos Poulantzas Institute en Atenas. Aquí se examina y profundiza en el trabajo del epónimo griego, Nicos Poulantzas, quien transformó radicalmente el estado del Marxismo teórico. La mayor contribución del teórico político y legal, economista político, y comunista intelectual, fue su crítica a la política económica de la era del Fordismo Atlántico y el Imperialismo estadounidense de la post-guerra, e invitó a un perspicaz balance entre la democracia representativa y la democracia directa para asegurar la transición social demócrata. Este artículo ofrece, primeramente, reflexiones generales sobre la originalidad, legado y actualidad del trabajo de Poulantza, y también reconstruye sus últimos acercamientos a la crítica de la política económica antes de su muerte en 1979. Notando su falta de atención en el medio ambiente y asuntos de ecología política, producto de la izquierda Francesa y Griega de los años setenta y aspectos generales del marxismo teórico sobre naturaleza y medio ambiente, este artículo elabora una perspectiva desde Poulantzas sobre ecología política y con base en los principales argumentos de su trabajo. El artículo concluye con una recopilación de la validez sobre su visión respecto al socialismo democrático, indicando que se habría convertido en una crítica sobre ecología política, y sugiere que Poulantzas se habría aproximado con el mismo espíritu de la romántica ironía pública que fue promovida por uno de sus mayores influencias teóricas y políticas: Antonio Gramsci.
Το άρθρο αυτό παρουσιάζει την ετήσια διάλεξη στο Ινστιτούτο Νίκος Πουλαντζάς στην Αθήνα, προς μνήμη του Νίκου Πουλαντζά, του οποίο το έργο εξετάζει και αναπτύσσει. Ο Πουλαντζάς, ένας θεωρητικός της πολιτικής επιστήμης, οικονομολόγος και κουμουνιστής διανοούμενος, μεταμόρφωσε ριζοσπαστικά την μαρξιστική θεωρία για το κράτος, και συνέβαλλε καθοριστικά στην κριτική της πολιτικής οικονομίας την περίοδο του ατλαντικού φορντισμού και του μεταπολεμικού αμερικανικού ιμπεριαλισμού, καλώντας για μια προσεκτική ισορροπία μεταξύ αντιπροσωπευτικής και άμεσης δημοκρατίας, εχέγγυο για την δημοκρατική μετάβαση σε έναν δημοκρατικό σοσιαλισμό. Το άρθρο αυτό προσφέρει σκέψεις σχετικά με την πρωτοτυπία, ιστορική σημασία, και επικαιρότητα του έργου του Πουλαντζά, ανασυνθέτοντας τις ύστερες θέσεις του στην κριτική στην πολιτική οικονομία πριν τον θάνατό του το 1979. Αν και είναι δεδομένη στο έργο του η παράλειψη της διάστασης του περιβάλλοντος και της πολιτικής οικολογίας, χαρακτηριστική της γαλλικής και της ελληνικής αριστεράς την δεκαετία του 70 και με ρίζες στην μαρξιστική θεωρητική προσέγγιση της φύσης, το παρών άρθρο επεξεργάζεται μία κατά Πουλαντζά θεωρία της πολιτικής οικολογίας, αντλώντας επιχειρήματα από το έργο του. Επιβεβαιώνεται εδώ η εγκυρότητα του οράματος του Πουλαντζά για τον δημοκρατικό σοσιαλισμό το οποίο θα μπορούσε να είχε εξελιχθεί σε μία κριτική της πολιτικής οικολογίας, την οποία ο Πουλαντζάς θα είχε προσεγγίσει με το ίδιο πνέυμα της ρομαντικής και δημόσιας ειρωνείας την οποία πρότασσε ο θεωρητικός και πολιτικός ο οποίος περισσότερο τον επηρέασε, ο Αντόνιο Γκράμσι.
These more recent trends are my primary concern below. Since a short survey cannot cover all relevant material, I will provide a general account of the RA's successive generations and developmental trajectories. I then illustrate this account by reviewing the Parisian 'state of the art' and the theoretical innovations introduced by other theorists. I also consider the RA's responses to the failure of its initial alternative economic strategy (due, it should be noted, to lack of adoption rather than subsequent implementation failure) and its relative isolation within mainstream economics; and I also examine how the RA's message has been received and understood outside the discipline of economics. I conclude by asking whether the twenty years of research, scholarship, and exposition invested in the RA have been worth the effort (the standard RA survey is Boyer 1990; on more recent work, see also Boyer and Saillard 1995a).
Among the most important factors generating this financial crisis they cite: (a) various economic and political difficulties inherited from the ‘shortage economy’ associated with state socialism; (b) the economic disruption and transitional deficit occasioned by the abandonment of state socialism and neo-liberal efforts to move towards a market economy; (c) economic policy mistakes which have aggravated this inevitable disruption and its associated financial deficit and thereby further worsened the political crisis; (d) political commitments to various forms of economic and social expenditure required by a transitional political regime desperate to secure its legitimacy; and (e) the political crises provoked by badly flawed efforts to democratize the political system at the same time that efforts are being made to liberalize the economy. In addition to identifying various causal factors contributing to the financial crisis of the post-socialist state, they also trace the reciprocal influence of this crisis on the economic and political difficulties now affecting post-socialist Poland. They conclude, hardly surprisingly, that, given the lack of system integration (‘systemic vacuum’) and the failure to develop any coherent hegemonic project for restructuring post-socialist societies (‘strategic vacuum’), the financial crisis tends to make things worse rather than better. In particular it reduces the prospects of effective co-ordination of economic and political reform and also necessitates cuts in public expenditure which threaten the legitimacy of the overall transformation process.
It should be emphasized that the present survey is not concerned with Marxist economics as such. Instead it instead on some recent Marxist theories of the capitalist state. Nor does it develop a new approach; it simply considers these theories in terms of certain given criteria. These comprise general criteria such as logical consistency and theoretical determinacy, as well as more specific criteria relevant to an evaluation of Marxist theories. The latter can be stated quite briefly as follows. A Marxist theory of the capitalist state will be considered adequate to the extent that (a) it is founded on the specific qualities of capitalism as a mode of production, (b) it attributes a central role to class struggle in the process of capital accumulation, (c) it establishes the relations between the political and economic features of society without reducing one to the other or treating them as totally independent and autonomous, (d) it allows for historical and national differences in the forms and functions of the state in capitalist societies, and (e) it allows for the influence of non-capitalist classes and non-class forces in determining the nature of the state and the exercise of state power. To justify the choice of these particular criteria would sidetrack the discussion before it begins; it is hoped that their relevance and importance will emerge as we proceed.
The paper starts with a short review of the approach of Marx and other classical Marxist theorists to the capitalist state. Several different themes in their work are specified and their merits and demerits considered. This provides a framework within which to assess recent developments. Some variations on the themes of the classical texts are then examined and criticized for their failure to advance the Marxist theory of the state. This brings us to the central part of the paper, which deals with recent theories of the capitalist state, evaluated in the light of our criteria. The paper concludes with some general remarks on Marxist analyses of state power in capitalist societies and their implications for other theoretical approaches.