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Transcript of Louis Althusser Devaki2
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Term Paper Thesis
2009
Louis Pierre
Althusser1918-1990
s u b m i t t e d b y : 2 0 0 8 S W 0 1 8
The ideas of the ruling classare in every epoch the rulingideas, i.e. the class which isthe ruling material force of
society, is at the same timeits ruling intellectual force
(Marx and Engels, 1974,
p.64)
On
Ideological
State
Apparatus
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Abstract
The term paper is an in depth engagement with a thinker and a concept
articulated by him. The term paper is thus an intense theoretical
understanding, analysis and critique of the concept chosen. As a
consequence it helps the student to be thorough in terms of the theory
related to the concept, the linkages, its application and its implications.
The thinker I have selected for the term paper is Louis Althusser, a French
philosopher and a structural Marxist. Althusser, considered to be an
influential philosopher to emerge in the revival of Marxist Theory in the
1960s, attempted to reconcile Marxism with structuralism. The focus ofacademic engagement is a concept forwarded by him, namely,
Ideological State Apparatus. The term paper delves deep into this
concept while at the same time unravelling new terms and concepts
related to it like, Repressive State Apparatus, Interpellation and an
Althusserian perception of Ideology, the State, relations of production and
the structure of society.
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Content
Acknowledgement
About Althusser
Structuralism
Althusser and structuralism
Inter-linkages (a mini conceptual map)
Reproduction of conditions of production
Reproduction of labour power
Social Formation- Infra structure and super structure
The State Ideological Apparatus
Reproduction of relations of production
Ideology
Interpellation
Critique
Conclusion
References
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Conceptual Map (attached)
Acknowledgement
I am thankful to Nagesh sir for being my guide for the term paper and
making available literature for this assignment of mine. Manjula mam has
also been helpful and her articles have led to understand the linkages
between media and Althusser and the influence of his thoughts on the
analysis of media.
The whole course of DSTW in itself has helped me widen my horizons and
helped me gain new perspectives. I would not have been introduced to
Althusser and another thought within the Marxist School, if it were not for
DTSW. I would also like to thank Bodhi sir and Alex sir for the same and
also for their guidance and encouragement.
I am also thankful to my classmates for the discussions, debates which
added to my knowledge and awareness. The journey called DSTW would
have been incomplete without my batch mates and am grateful for all the
experiences I shared with them.
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About Althusser
Louis Althusser was born on 16th October, 1918 in Birmandries, near
Algiers, Algeria, the son of Charles Althusser and Lucien Berger. His father
was a bank manager, whom Althusser saw as an authoritative, distant
figure. Althusser was a Catholic. The monastic life fascinated him in his
youth, and he remained a believer till about 1947.
Althusser was educated at Algiers, Marseilles, and Lyons. In 1939 he was
admitted to the Ecole Normale Suprieure (ENS), but the war interrupted
his studies, and he was called up to serve in the army in September.
Althusser did not see action in the early days of World War II. In 1940
Germans occupied northern and eastern France and Althusser had to
spend five years in a German concentration camp, mostly in Schleswig.
Later he said that he found life easy because he enjoyed the comradeship
of men and behind barbed wires. He admitted that he felt well protected.
After the war Althusser resumed his studies at the ENS, where, with his
sense of coming from a 'different world', he felt being a complete
stranger. Another impact of having spent 5 years in the camp was that he
got pushed to the left and joined the Communist Party in 1948, remainingits life-long member.
During this period Althusser met Helene Rytman, who became his
companion and later his wife. Althusser suffered from depression
regularly and was given shock treatment and therapy. This pattern
remained basically unchanged till 1990 of depression, therapy and shock
treatment, and periods of active writing and working. Althusser
completed a master's thesis in 1948 on the German philosopher G.W.
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Hegel. In the same year he was appointed caiman at the ENS. He was
responsible for preparing students for the aggregation or final
examination. He taught philosophy and played a central role in
influencing French intellectuals for a generation.
Althusser was a relatively unknown political philosopher until 1965. In
fact, he had the reputation of being a recluse. Pour Marx(For Marx)
and Lire de Capital (Reading Capital), a collection of papers written
for a seminar on Das Kapital at the ENS in 1965, changed the situation.
These books represented intellectually hard-line Marxism, but not
dogmatism. By reading Marx "to the letter" Althusser challenged
contemporary softer interpretations of Marx's work.
Marxism was not for Althusser an ideology or world-view but a
revolutionary science, ultimately the science of society. "I should add
that, just as the foundation of mathematics by Thales 'induced' the birth
of the Platonic philosophy, just as the foundation of physics by Galileo
'induced' the birth of Cartesian philosophy, etc., so the foundation of the
science of history by Marx has 'induced' the birth of a new, theoreticallyand practically revolutionary philosophy, Marxist philosophy or dialectical
materialism." 1
In the Party his relations with the secretary general, Georges Marchais,
and other members of the leadership, were never easy. Due to his
leanings toward Maoism, he was nearly dispelled in 1966 in a dispute
over China's Cultural Revolution. Althusser mentions in his book of
memoir, L'Avenir diure Longtemps (The Future Lasts Forever) that Mao
had granted him an interview, but he dropped it, fearing the political
reaction against him. In April 1978 he launched an attack on the
Communist Party in Le Monde wherein he published a denunciation of the
leadership in What Must Change in the Party. After the rise of the
student movement in 1968, Althusser's influence in France faded. During
1
Louis Althusser 1970 in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays
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the turbulent events in May 1968, Althusser was in a sanatorium,
recuperating from depression. Althusser himself once counted that he
suffered at least fifteen depressions from 1947 to 1980. To the
disappointment of the students movement, he supported the officialparty line and did not consider the situation revolutionary. Later his view
changed, and he held that there was a real atmosphere of fraternity on
the streets and Party had lost touch with the student masses in revolt.
On November 6, 1980 Althusser killed his wife. In L'Avenir diure
Longtemps (The Future Lasts Forever) which was published posthumously
in 1992, he explained this disaster. Having being deemed unfit for trial
was admitted in a mental hospital. Althusser stayed in hospital until 1983.
Althusser died of a heart attack on October 22, 1990 and his last few
years were spent in intellectual as well as personal isolation.
Structuralism
The term paper is located in the context of structuralism because
Althusser is said to be a structural Marxist who sought to reconcile
structuralism and Marxism. The irony of the situation is that Althusser
never accepted himself to be a structuralist.
The terms 'structure' and 'social structure' were widely used in sociology
and have been since Herbert Spencer introduced the term 'structure' intothe field in the 19th century. The dark post-war mood that lent
existentialism its appeal faded when economic recovery set in, and in the
boom-period of the 1960s it was replaced by a new vogue called
structuralism. Structuralism became an intellectual fashion in the 1960s
in France. Ernest Gellner, a well known French Philosopher, sociologist,
and a social anthropologist wrote, in 1970: 'a spectre is haunting the
intellectual scene - structuralism or better "le structuralisme".2
Roman2 Alison Assiter (1984)
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Jacobson's linguistic structuralism, Roland Barthess structuralist literary
criticism and Lvi-Strausss anthropological structuralism enjoyed
widespread interest. Louis Althusser and his student Michel Foucault were
also regarded as representatives of this trend.
The structuralists stressed the persistence of deep structures that
underlie all human cultures, leaving little room for either historical
change or human initiative. Structural perspective takes the position that
the institutions of the state must function in such a way as to ensure
perpetuation of capitalism. Thus the state reproduces the logic of the
capitalist structure through its economic, legal, cultural, educational and
political institutions. So the institutions of the state function in long term
interests of capitalism itself rather than in short term interests of a
particular capitalist class or members of it as said by traditional Marxist.
Structuralists argue that the state and its institutions have a certain
degree of independence from the ruling or capitalist class. Structuralism
seeks its structures not on the surface, at the level of the observed, but
below or behind empirical reality. What the observer sees is not the
structure, but simply the evidence of the product of structure.
Schaff lists the following four characteristics which form, he suggests, an
intellectual trend: first, structuralists approach the subject matter of their
research as a specific whole which dominates all its elements. They are
critical of atomism, where things are studied as discrete parts of an
aggregate, and where wholes are no more than the sum of their parts.
The whole, according t o the structuralist, forms a system whoseelements are interconnected and where the structure of the whole
determines the position of each element. Second, structuralists believe
that every system has a structure: the task of science is to find out what
that structure is.
Althusser and Structuralism
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Althusser too, like the structuralists, propounds to look at complex
totalities and not just the elements which compose them. These
elements the relations of production, forces of production etc, he says
are linked in specific ways. Indeed the nature of each part of the whole isdetermined by its role in the totality. Thus economic practice according
to Althusser does not exist on its own but as a part of a larger structure.
The larger structure includes apart from economic practice, ideological
and political practice. He prefers to look at the whole rather than a sum of
its elements.
ISA is in a way conceived from this structuralist school of thought which
says that the state and its institutions have a certain degree of autonomy
from the ruling capitalist class.
Inter-linkages
To understand concept of ISA, one needs to know certain other terms
which are related and linked in the following way: (This map also reflects
the way the term paper is explained)
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Reproduction of conditions of production
Marx in Das Kapital (Vol 2) proved that no production is possible whichdoes not allow for the reproduction of the material conditions of
production: the reproduction of the means of production. Thus the
ultimate condition of production is the reproduction of conditions of
production. Every social formation arises from a dominant mode of
production. So, in order to exist, every social formation must reproduce
the conditions of its production at the same time as it produces and in
order to be able to produce, it must therefore reproduce:
1. The productive forces
2. The existing relations of production
It must reproduce firstly the means of production. This includes the
labour power and the material forces i.e. raw material, fixed capital
(buildings, machines etc.). A kind of endless chain ensues where for
example a Mr. X produces wool, for him to reproduce his raw material he
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REPRODUCTION OF
CONDITIONS OF
PRODUCTION
REPRODUCTION OF LABOUR
POWER AND RELATIONS OF
PRODUCTION
IDEOLO
All ideology hails or interpellates concrete
individuals as concrete subjects"
Super structure
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will be dependent on Mr. Y who produces woollen yarn who will in turn
depend upon Mr. Z for machinery and so on.
Reproduction of labour power
Apart from the material forces, reproduction of labour power is equally
important, if not more. It is ensured by giving labour power the material
means with which to reproduce itself: by wages (- the means to pay for
housing, food and clothing, to raise and educate children) this is not
enough to ensure for labour powers reproduction. Available labour power
must be competent i.e. suitable to be set to work in the complex system
of the process of production. The labour power has to be diversely skilledand hence must be reproduced. Here diversely skilled means the socio-
technical division of labour i.e. the different jobs and posts. This is
achieved outside production: by the capitalist education system and by
other instances and institutions.
The reproduction of labour power reveals (as will be elaborated later in
the paper) that it entails reproduction of not only skills but also
reproduction of its subjection to the ruling ideology or the practice of
that ideology. It is in the forms and under forms of ideological subjection
that provision is made for the reproduction of the skills of labour power.
The other crucial aspect is the reproduction of the relations of production-
which will be tackled later.
Social formation
11
The bourgeoisie can only secure the stability and the continuity of exploitation(that it imposes in production) on condition that it wages a permanent class
struggle against the working class. This class struggle is fought by
perpetuating and reproducing the material ideological and political conditions
of exploitation. It is carried out within production (cuts in the wages, intended
for the reproduction of labour power, repression, sanctions, redundancies,
anti-union struggle etc.). At the same time it is conducted outside production.
It is here that the role of the state of the RSAs and the ISAs (the political
system, school, churches, channels of information) intervenes in order to
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This model is an attempt to reveal how society is structured. This is how
even Marx conceptualised the society to be. The base or the infrastructure refers to the economic forces of production while the super
structure consists of the legal, political, cultural, ethical institutions.
Althusser concentrated more on the super structure or infrastructure. He
said that even the super structure consists of two levels:
1. Politico-legal i.e. State, Law etc.
2. Ideology i.e. religious, ethical, legal, political etc.
The most important conditions of existence of a social formation need not
necessarily be economic. The political and ideological levels do not
always reveal the presence of eco lurking behind them. The relation
between the base and super-structure is not one of expression where
the super structures are reflexes or phenomena emanating from the
economic structure or essence. Rather the superstructures could be seen
as the necessary conditions of existence of the eco base.
Marx stated that economy is determinant in the last instance. Thus
he meant that the functioning of the institutions in the super structure is
ruled by the economics of the base. Contradictorily Althusser stated that
the lonely hour of the last instance never comes (1965). He
maintained that the super structure is relatively autonomous and
functions by its own ideology and own specific rules and laws. Louis
12
Ideology i.e. religious,
ethical, legal,
Politico-legal i.e.State, Law etc.
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Althusser is against the mechanistic interpretation of the base-
superstructures metaphor, and proposes a quite distinct concept of the
social formation. He thus rejects Marxs economic determinism by
arguing that the super structure had a degree of relative independencefrom the base.
To substantiate this point he gives the example of the Russian Revolution
of Feb 1917. a large part of the State Apparatus survived after the seizure
of the State power by the alliance of the proletariat and the small
peasantry
On the reproduction of relations of production:
The relations of production are those which make and maintain a
capitalist as one belonging to the bourgeoisie and the worker as
belonging to the proletariat. These relations of hierarchy and oppression
are secured by the legal-political and ideological superstructure. It is
exercised by the State power in the State Apparatuses- by Repressive
State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatus. The RSA secures by
force (physical and otherwise) the political conditions of the reproduction
of relations of reproduction and also conditions for the practice of ISA.
Behind the shield of the RSA the ISA contributes to the relations of
production. The political apparatus does this by subjecting individuals to
the political State ideology; the communications apparatus by blasting
every citizen with daily doses of nationalism, chauvinism, liberalism,
moralism etc. by the means of press, radio, television; the same goes for
cultural apparatus, the religious apparatus and also the family.
In the Middle Ages, the Church (the religious ISA) alongside the Family
were the ISAs which carried out educational and cultural functions.
Publishing and Communications as also Theatre were integral parts of the
Church. In the pre-capitalist historical period, there was one dominant
Ideological State Apparatus, the Church, which carried out not only
religious functions but also educational, communications, culturalfunctions. French Revolution transferred State power from the feudal
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aristocracy to the merchant-capitalist bourgeoisie and attacked the
number one Ideological State Apparatus: the Church.
The ISA which has now been installed in the dominant position is the
educational ideological apparatus. Behind the scenes of political ISA,
which is more apparent, is the educational ISA. Like all other ISAs, its
primary function is to reproduce the relations of production in favour of
the dominant class.
Ideological State Apparatus
Marx: Though Marx recognized the complexity of the State, he did not
systemize it in a theoretical form, thus restricting their terrain to that of
political practice. In Marxs writings (Communist Manifesto and the
Eighteenth Brumaire), the State is explicitly conceived as a repressive
apparatus. The state is an aide of the bourgeoisie class to help dominate
the proletariat while in the process of extorting surplus value. In concrete
terms it is the police, army, courts and prisons. To validate this point
Althusser gives certain examples from political democracy which point
out to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie through the repressive state
apparatus: the massacre of June 1848 and of the Paris Commune; of
Bloody Sunday, May 1905 and censorship on a play by Gatti on Franco,
to name a few.
This theory however lacks in the sense that it does little to advance the
theory of the State. It blocks its development, which in necessary.
14
At this point it is necessary to point out that STATE POWER AND STATE
APPARATUS are two different things. The objective of the class struggle
concerns State power, and in consequence the use of the State apparatus
by the classes holding State power as a function of their class objective
The proletariat must seize State power in order to destroy the existing
bourgeoisie State apparatus and, in a the first phase replace it with a
quite different, proletarian State apparatus, that in later phases sets in
motion a radical process, that of destruction of the State (the end of the
State power, the end of every State apparatus).
State apparatus may survive without being affected or modified: it maysurvive political events which affect the possession of State power.
Example: even after a social revolution like that of 1917, a large part of
the State Apparatus survived after the seizure of the State power by the
alliance of the proletariat and the small peasantry.
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Gramsci: The only person to venture into this territory was Antonio
Gramsci, who included certain civil society institutions like the Church,
the Schools etc. as being part of the RSA. He too however, did not
systematize it.
Althusser: To advance the theory of the State, he gives the new
concept: the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). Althusser defines
ISAs as a certain number of realities which present themselves to the
immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialises institutions. He
proposes an empirical list of these institutions.
1. The religious ISA (the system of different churches)
2. The educational ISA (the system of different public and private
schools)
3. The family ISA
4. The legal ISA (also belongs to the RSA)
5. The political ISA
6. The trade union ISA
7. The communications ISA (press, radio and tv etc.)
8. The cultural ISA (literature, arts, sports etc.)
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It is necessary to distinguish between ISA and RSA for clarity and to
understand the basic premise and functioning of each State apparatus.
RSA ISA
One RSA Plurality of ISAs
The unified RSA belongs to the
public domain
Most of the ISAs are part of the
private domain
RSA functions by violence
ISAs function by ideology
RSA functions massively &
predominantly by repression
(including physical), while
functioning secondarily by
ideology
ISAs function massively &
predominantly by ideology, but
they also function secondarily
by repression.
Police, army, law, prisons etc. Church, schools, family, media
etc.
RSA constitutes an organisedwhole who is different parts are
centralized beneath a
commanding unity of politics of
class struggle and the class in
power.
ISA are multiple, distinct andrelatively autonomous, whose
unity is secured by the ruling
ideology, the ideology of the
ruling class.
The ideology of the ruling class unifies the ISAs. Given the fact that the
ruling class in principle holds State power, and therefore has at its
disposal the RSA, we can accept the fact that this same ruling class is
active in the ISAs insofar as it is ultimately the ruling ideology which is
realized in the ISAs. No class can hold State power over a long period
without at the same time exercising its hegemony over and in the State
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Ideological Apparatuses. Thus ISAs may be not only the stake, but also
their site of class struggle.
School- one ISA which is so silent! (Educational ISA)
The school takes in children of all age groups starting from infancy to
adulthood- the years when the child is most vulnerable and thus can be
moulded. What are we taught in school part from learning to read, write,
add- techniques and know how?? Children are taught:
Rules of good behaviour i.e. the attitude that should be observed by
every agent in the division of labour, according to the job he is
destined for.
Rules of morality, civic and professional conscience
Respect for the socio-technical division of labour
Respect for rules of the order established by class domination.
All these rules are wrapped in the ruling ideology which perpetuates the
domination of the class in power and consequent subjugation of the one
oppressed.
Thus school ISA ensures reproduction of- not just skills but also
submission to the rules of the established order / ruling ideology and also
submission to the practice of that ideology.
At the age 0f 16, a huge mass of children are ejected into production:
these are the workers or small peasants. Another portion of scholastically
adapted youth carries on and fills the posts of small and middle
executives, petty bourgeois of all kinds. A last portion reaches the
summit, either to fall into intellectual semi-employment, or to become the
agents of exploitation capitalist, managers, the agents of repression-
soldiers, policemen, politicians, administrators. At every level they get
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out, they are provided with an ideology, which suits the role it has to
fulfil. The role of the exploited, the agent of exploitation, the agent of
repression, of the professional ideologist. Of all, it is only the school ISA
which has the obligatory audience of the totality of the children in thecapitalist social formation, eight hours a day for d or six days out of a
week.
To reinforce this point Althusser locates the Soviet revolution and Lenin in
the framework of ISA and its importance in being instrumental to retain
and wield power. Lenins primary interest lay in revolutionizing the
education system in Soviet Russia to make it possible for the Soviet
proletariat, who had seized State power, to secure the future of thedictatorship of the proletariat and the transition into socialism. The
educational system becomes a part of consensus creation to generate
support for the politics of capital and also nurtures new ideas that would
expand the rule of capital. The educational system is vocation based
leaving no room for critical thinking. This is done so that students become
a part of the labour force as soon as possible. Education rather than
encouraging creativity, critical thought and dialogue, it has become a
method of control, a tool of disciplining and a scheme of consensus
building that would facilitate the reproduction of the capitalist system.
Thus ISA may not be only the stake but also the site of class struggle.
Media
The most influential accounts of the workings of ideology and related
concepts like those most useful for analysing the media, come from what
may be broadly describes as teh Marxist perspective. At its most basic
level, ideological analysis attempts to understand how dominant social
groups are able to reproduce their social and economic power. It does so
by focusing on both the material and intellectual manifestations of these
reproductive processes.
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Certain ideas and beliefs are legitimized and made real through their
media representations. For ex: many media texts revolve around
individuals, either as the focus of news reports or as the central
characters in fictional stories. According to Althusser, the centrality ofindividualism assists in the reproduction of existing social formations. It
prevents people from seeing or thinking of themselves as members of a
collective group, such as a social class, which if acknowledged may cause
them to resist their given role and seek to challenge the capitalist
values that oppress them. Thus the emphasis that media put on
individual actions can be constructed as ideological. This masks the
power relations at work at a given historical moment and to individualiseis to ignore the relations of class, caste, gender and race, which are
detrimental in any given society in terms of affecting the opportunities an
individual can actually exploit. It holds individual accountable and not
the larger structure.
Interpellation: advertisements really work to sell the dominant
ideology, as much as they sell consumer goods. The call upon the
consumers to see it as being representative of their desires and interests,
which are closely connected to the values of consumer capitalism. The
consuming individual is only really given a choice within the interests of
those who rule.
Ideology
Graeme Turner: Ideology as a kind of veil over the eyes of the
working class, the filter that screened out or disguised their
real relations to the world around them (1990, p.25)
The whole explanation of ISA revolves around the concept of ideology. It
is thus necessary to understand Althussers perception of ideology and
his elucidation of the same.
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The term was first invented by Cabanis, Destutt de Tracy and their
friends, who assigned to it as an object the (genetic) theory of ideas.
Marx took it up fifty years later and said that ideology is the system of
the ideas and representations which dominate the mind of a man orsocial group. Ideology is a complex term which has multiple and
contradictory meanings of which the most influential explanations come
from the Marxist perspective
Ideology plays a key part in peoples everyday perceptions of the world.
For traditional Marxists ideology was a reflection- a false consciousness
i.e. a false understanding of the way the world functioned by pointing to
the real world hidden by ideology. For Althusser, rather than being a
false consciousness, ideology in fact structured peoples lived
experience. Ideology is a necessary feature for any society, including the
classless communism of the future. It serves as a factor of social
cohesion. It plays an important position of adapting human beings to the
roles required of them as bearers of the prevailing relations of production.
Every individuals conception of themselves as coherent autonomous
persons- is the means through which they are subsumed under
ideological social relations. It is in the forms and under the forms of
ideological subjection that provision is made for the reproduction of the
skills of labour power.(Althusser1965). The role of ISAs is to attempt to
force the working class to submit to the relations and conditions of
exploitation through ideology. Thus the need to recognise the effective
presence of a new reality: i.e. ideology.
Ideology is the fabric and medium of all societies. In Marxism, according
to Althusser, they suffer from a basic reductionism where the super
structure is reduced to phenomena of the base, or they (super structure)
are the result of a simple, essential contradiction the economic.
Ideology is thus relegated to the surface of appearances and thus
ideology is excluded from the material existence and always mentioned
last among the super structures. Althusser ventured to reconceptualise
and transform the way the relations between the base and the super
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structure are defined. He wished to do away with the over
determination of the base (or the economic). The ISAs represent the form
in which the ideology of the ruling class must be necessarily realised. In
fact the ideology of the ruling class becomes the ruling ideology onlythrough the installation and the development of the specific ISAs in which
it is realised.
Ideology is thus a representation of the imaginary relationship of
individuals to their real conditions of existence. Ideologies are imaginary
and do not correspond to reality, though they do make an allusion to it.
They need to be interpreted to discover the reality behind their
imaginary representation of that world (ideology=illusion/allusion)
Ideology has material existence.
There is no practice except by and in an ideology;
There is no ideology except by the subject and for subjects.
An ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices.
This existence is material. The imaginary relation of ideology is
itself endowed with a material existence. And that ideology
influences human action which takes place in the material world. Where
only a single subject is concerned, the existence of the ideas of his belief
is material in that his ideas are his material actions inserted into material
practices governed by material rituals which are themselves defined by
the material ideological apparatus from which derive the ideas of that
subject. Ideology always manifests itself through actions, which are
"inserted into practices", for example, rituals, conventional behaviour,
and so on. .
21
IDEOLO
All ideology hails or interpellates concrete
individuals as concrete subjects"
(INTERPELLATION)
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Interpellation
"All ideology has the function (which defines it) of 'constructing'
concrete individuals as subjects. Subjects to what? The answer:
to the material practices of the ideology. This (the creation of
subjects) is done by the acts of "hailing" or "interpellation".
These are acts of attracting attention (hailing), forcing the
individuals to generate meaning (interpretation) and making
them participate in the practice.
Ideology acts and functions in such a way that it recruits subjects among
the individuals, or transforms the individuals into subjects by that veryprecise operation which Althusser has called interpellation or hailing,
and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace
everyday police hailing: Hey, you there! (is concerned with hailing of
suspects). When a person responds to such a hailing, whether or not it
was addressed to him, by the very act of responding he becomes a
subject. Experience shows that the practical telecommunication of hailing
is such that they hardly ever miss their man: verbal call or whistle, theone hailed always recognises that it is really him who is being hailed. The
existence of ideology and the hailing or interpellation of individuals as
subjects is one and the same thing. Thus what we think takes place
outside of ideology in fact takes place in ideology.
As ideology is eternal, it has always-already interpellated individuals
as subjects i.e. to say that individuals are always-already subjects. An
individual is always-already a subject, even before he is born. Even
before the child is born, it is certain in advance that it will bear its
Father's Name, and will therefore have an identity and be irreplaceable.
Before its birth, the child is therefore always-already a subject, appointed
as a subject in and by the specific familial ideology
As a result of interpellation the individual sees him/herself as a sovereign,
autonomous individual. On doing so, the individual recognises him/herselfas the subject of ideology, but at the same time, in Althussers terms, the
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individual also misrecognises him/herself According to Mark Jancovich
These positions are not normal and inherent to individuals, but
individuals misrecognise or mistake these positions as being natural and
inherent in themselves(1995, p128). As a result of misrecognition,individuals become the active agents of ideology, giving power and
sustenance to the very ideologies that work to exploit them.
Advertisement: The ideology of consumption (which is, undeniably, the
most material of all practices) uses advertising to transform individuals to
subjects (to consumers). It uses advertising to interpellate them. The
advertisements attract attention, force people to introduce meaning to
them and, as a result, to consume. The reader or viewer of the ad is
transformed into the subject of (and subject to) the material practice of
the ideology (consumption, in this case).
Critique
Louis Althusser wanted to expand Marxist theory in order to understand
how societies reproduce their social formations. In doing so he was
addressing what he saw as the limitations in traditional Marxist thinking.
His model of the base super structure where base was the determinant
factor has been widely criticized. He challenged the view that everything
in society could be reduced purely to the economic, arguing for an
approach that took the modern state and social institutions into account.
Thus to put it in a nutshell his rationalization of ISA and RSA has been a
value addition which challenges the traditional determinist Marxist link
between the economic base and the super structure.
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Althussers demarcation of RSAs and ISAs into two different water0tight
compartments can also be questioned. It seems an over simplification of
the complex nature of the Sate today in the 21st century.
A strong critique of Althusser by Marxist themselves is of the way he
suggest that the subordinate social groups were the passive receivers of
the dominant, capitalist ideology.The concept of hegemony offered
another explanation of how the dominance of certain class values came
about. Gramsci suggested that this dominance occurred not simply
through the imposition of the will of the dominant class through ideology,
but by its presentation of itself as the group best able to fulfil the
interests and aspirations of other classes, and by implication, a whole
society.In this way dominant classes can be said to rule through consent
rather than coercion. According to Gramsci, consent is not simply given
without question; rather, it must be continually renegotiated and re-
established, since however much the interests of the ruling class are
presented as accommodating those of the subordinate classes, their
interests are in opposition. Thus one can bring out two criticisms from
the clarification above: firstly, Althusser assumes passivity of the
proletariat class while narrating the influence of ISAs and ideology and
secondly, he has reconceptualised what Gramsci said in different
language while perhaps adding on little to what Gramsci had to say.
Conclusion
Thus though Althusser can be credited with challenging the traditional
economic determinism of the conventional base super structure model
where economics was the determining factor, he has done little to add
on to what Gramsci said about Hegemony . In fact Gramsci even
conceptualised a way out of the capitalist cycle by talking about counter
hegemony and organic intellectuals. Althusser doesnt seem to have
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come forward with any such new ideas. In his defence though, it can be
said that his conceptualisation of ideology and ISAs are as stated in his
essay, notes towards an investigation. Thus he has not attempted to
concretize it into a theory but is open to innovations.
Apart from this Althusser has brought in many new dimensions to the
stream of Marxist thought, which were beyond the scope of this paper.
These are crucial and important to further ones understanding of Marxism
in the 21st Century.
In applying the focus of this paper to DTSW, while specifically addressing
the caste system, one can say that if we place the Brahmins as thecapitalist class and the Dalits as the proletariat, we can say that right now
the focus is more on employment than on empowerment. Thus the
struggle is in the base while we need to locate it in (apart from the
economic sphere) in the social, cultural, religious, political sphere- thus
the Ideological Institutions. So to say in Althusserian terms we need to
place the struggle in the ISAs and not just the base structure. The latter is
necessary for true empowerment and emancipation of the oppressed.
References:
Althusser, Louis:
1971.
Lenin and Philosophy and other
Essays. Translated by Ben Brewster.
London and New York: MonthlyReview Press.
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Althusser, Louis;
Balibar, Etienne:
1970.
Reading Capital. Translated by Ben
Brewster.
Gordy, Michael:
1983.
Reading Althusser. History and
Theory, Vol.22 No.1, Wesleyan
University.
Sprinkler, Michael,
1995.
The Legacies of Althusser. Yale
French Studies, Vol.88, Yale
University Press.
Assiter, Alison:
1984.
Althusser and Structuralism. British
Journal of Sociology Vol.35, No.2,
Blackwell Publication.Smith, Steven:
1989.
Ideology and Interpret: The case of
Althusser. Poetics Today Vol. 10,
No.3, Duke University Press.
Craig, Edward:
1998.
Routledge Encyclopaedia of
Philosophy Vol 1, pg 192. London
and New York: Routledge
Althusser, Louis
1971.
On Ideology. London and New York:
Verso (Radical Thinkers)
Peters, Roy.
McLennan, Gregor.
Molina, Victor.
Althussers Theory of ideology
Rooney, Ellen.
1995.
Better Read than dead: Althusser
and the fetish of ideology. Yale
French studies, No. 88, p.183-200.
Yale University Press.
E-resources:
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www.marxist.org/glossary/people/althusser-louis
www.introductiontomarxism.com
http://www.marxist.org/glossary/people/althusser-louishttp://www.introductiontomarxism.com/http://www.marxist.org/glossary/people/althusser-louishttp://www.introductiontomarxism.com/