Summary
Summary Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses
- Module
- Marx and Marxism
- Institution
- Oxford University (OX)
Summary of Althusser's text 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'
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Louis Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses● The ultimate condition of production is the reproduction of the conditions of production
i.e. the productive forces (means of production and labour power) AND the relations of
production
○ reproduction of labour power relies on wages etc, but also on
competence, which necessitates learning the rules of engagement and submission in the
capitalist system
○ this requires ideology, and the state functions in this way
● The state relies on two sets of apparatuses to secure this reproduction of labour power:
○ repressive state apparatuses (RSAs) e.g. army, courts, police,
government, prisons
○ ideological state apparatuses e.g. religion, education, family, law,
politics, trades unions, culture, media
● ‘No class can hold State power over a long period without at the same time exercising its
hegemony over and in the State Ideological Apparatuses.’
● What is ideology?
○ for Marx, ideology is a system of the ideas and representations which
dominate the mind of a man or social group
○ it is an imaginary assemblage, a pure dream, empty and vain. It has no
history because its history is outside it
○ for Althusser, ideologies do have a history of their own, though ideology
in general has no history
○ ideology is eternal, like the unconscious in Freud. it is omnipresent and
transhistorical
● Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of
existence
● Ideology has a material existence
○ e.g. in rituals undertaken by the religious believer, in ISAs
● There is no practice except by and in an ideology
● There is no ideology except by the subject and for subjects
○ the category of the subject is constitutive of ideology insofar as ideology
has the function of constituting concrete individuals as subjects
■ ideology has a recognition function which allows it to
subject individuals to its authority e.g. the policeman calling out ‘Hey, you
there!’ to the man on the street, who turns around and hence becomes a subject
■ we are ‘always-already’ subjects; and hence are
constantly practicing the rituals of ideological recognition
● e.g. pre-born babies are subject to the
family ideology
● The duplicate mirror-structure of ideology ensures simultaneously:
○ the interpellation of individuals as subjects
○ the their subjection to the Subject
○ the mutual recognition of subjects and Subject, the subjects’ recognition
of each other, and finally the subject’s recognition of himself
○ the absolute guarantee that everything really is so, and that on condition
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