Page 22 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

8 Changing Definitions of Politics and Power

states, ultimately they are irrelevant in relation to the necessity of the
reproduction of capitalism itself. In fact, the term “ relative autonomy ” is
oxymoronic; if autonomy is relative, then ultimately it is not autonomy
at all. As Paul Hirst argues, Althusser is trapped by his own question –
“ how is it possible for capitalist social relations to exist? ” – since there
is no general answer to this question which would not involve him in the
teleological logic of functionalist explanations. Althusser is searching for
the causes of an existing state of affairs which the explanation then takes
to be necessary for their existence; in effect, the consequences make the
causes necessary (Hirst, 1979 : 435). The conclusion that Hirst draws from
this is that, if the relative autonomy of the state is to be taken seriously,
there can be no reduction of the political to the economic: the form of
social classes produced as effects of politics must be analyzed as such.

In fact, the most influential aspect of Althusser ’ s work has been the
importance he gave to issues of ideology and subjectivity. Althusser saw
the state as working through the repressive institutions of the police and
the army, but also through ideology embedded in state institutions – for
him, a mixture of public and private institutions, including those of edu-
cation, the family, trade unions, and religion. Althusser saw society as a
complex of structures, each with its own dynamic, linked into a totality
by the ultimate determination of the economy. The function of ideology
is to make individuals into subjects who will fi t the positions provided by
those structures. Although it is described as consisting of “ representa-
tions ” – “ images, myths, ideas, or concepts ” – ideology does not work
through the conscious mind, but in an unconscious relation to the world
which is lived in social practices, such as religious rituals, political meet-
ings, and so on (Althusser, 1971 : 3944). Althusser ’ s theory of ideology
avoids the pitfalls of the Marxist notion of “ false consciousness, ” in which
people are seen as dupes of the capitalist system, since he does not see
ideology as consciousness at all; in his view, ideology is itself material,
involving experiences lived in real social practices. However, ideology
does involve a degree of mystifi cation in that subjects necessarily live an
imaginary relation to their real conditions of existence (Barrett, 1991 :
chapter 5 ).

Althusser ’ s lasting influence lies in the way in which he situated ideol-
ogy as a matter of practices rather than conscious ideas and beliefs and
the emphasis he gave to subjectivity as a means of social control. We will
return to this point in section 1.5 , where we discuss cultural politics.
However, the Marxist epistemology that gave him the assurance to
assert that subjects systematically misrepresent reality is problematic.

Althusser maintained that Marxism is scientific because it is “ open ” and