Tatiana Berringer has a PhD in Political Science from Unicamp and professor of International Relations at UFABC.
At the end of 2019, Editora Unicamp published a new translation of Political power and social classes, in the Marx 21 Collection. Fifty-one years after the first edition of the book in France, this work is still considered one of the main treatises of Marxist political science, which demonstrates that the author's objective was achieved. The undertaking that Poulantzas set himself was to write a regional theory of the political in the capitalist mode of production. He systematized the main contributions of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Gramsci, especially the works on politics.
Poulantzas was part of the group of Marxists led by the philosopher Louis Althusser who undertook a reinterpretation of Marx's works. Therefore, in addition to being extremely rigorous theoretically and methodologically, throughout the book there is a great debate within Marxism, especially with the historicist, humanist and economistic currents, as well as a dialogue with thinkers from other theoretical fields such as Max Weber and Wright Mills.
The main theoretical contributions of Political power... three key concepts are contained: legal-political structure, relative autonomy and power bloc. These are clearly concepts that are connected and that question the mechanistic thinking present in some Marxists. Therefore, the definition of social class is not determined exclusively by the position in production, but depends on the political and ideological position that classes and class fractions assume in certain political situations, producing or not relevant effects.
The State is political, a structure that organizes and guarantees the maintenance and reproduction of the capitalist mode of production. Law and bureaucratism are the basis of this structure that is based on the idea of equality and universality. Therefore, the capitalist State is a national State, which, at the same time, maintains social cohesion and organizes social relations of production. This is the objective role of the bourgeois state. The nation hides the class character of the State and, in line with the effect of isolating social classes produced by the action of bourgeois law, aims to prevent the organization of dominated classes that identify themselves in the national collective and not as social classes.
For Poulantzas, the State is not a class State due to the social composition of its staff, but due to the objective role that this State plays, regardless of the social origin of its occupants. There is a relative autonomy of the capitalist State in relation to the bourgeoisie, and the role it plays is to find a balance of compromise between classes and class fractions, enabling the maintenance and reproduction of the capitalist mode of production.
Both the bourgeoisie and the popular classes are not understood or treated as monolithic. The cleavage within it leads to the constitution of fractions, layers and class categories. The power bloc is, therefore, the contradictory unity of classes and class fractions under the hegemony of one of them who controls state policy (economic, social and foreign). Political conflicts occur, therefore, between the dominant classes and fractions of classes and between the dominated classes and fractions of classes and the middle sectors, with intersections, formations of alliances and political fronts. These dynamics consequently determine regimes and forms of State.
Poulantzas built a theoretical framework, which, despite being very consistent and robust, is not complete, this is the work thatwhat could be called the “Poulantzian School of Campinas” has sought to undertake in recent decades. This group brings together researchers such as Décio Saes, Armando Boito Jr., Lucio Flávio de Almeida, Angelita Matos de Souza, Francisco Farias, Danilo Martuscelli, Angela Lazagna, Caio Bugiato and the author of this review herself, and, outside of Unicamp, researchers from different Universities like Luiz Eduardo Motta, Eliel Machado, Jair Pinheiro, Leonardo Granato, Thiago Barison, and a whole generation of postgraduate students and young doctors who have just graduated. This is the task of develop, deepen and improve some theoretical concepts and debates, as well as carry out empirical research using this theoretical instrument. The work of this group has gained importance on the political and intellectual scene in recent years. This new translation was already expected by the public familiar with Poulantzas' work and will certainly attract readers interested in Marxist political theory.
SERVICE
Degree: Political power and social classes
Author Nicos Poulantzas
translator: Maria Leonor FR Loureiro
ISBNs: 978-85-268-1488-2
Pages: 368
Cover price: $ 86,00
Unicamp Publisher – 1st. edition, 2019
