"It's about breaking with the Stalinist tradition!": Interview with Nicos Poulantzas on authoritarian etatism in Western Europe and the strategy of the labor movement - conducted by Rodrigo Vaquez-Prada*

Gelegentlich hat man ihm Formalismus und Abstraktheit vorgeworfen. Dennoch - trotz aller Kritik, die dagegen vorgebracht werden kann - bildet das Werk dieses in Paris niedergelassenen Griechen ohne jeden Zweifel einen der solidesten und originärsten Beiträge zum gegenwärtigen Marxismus.Vor einem Jahrzehnt, bei der Beschreibung seiner eigenen geistigen Entwicklung, hat Nicos Poulantzas geschrieben, daß „in Epochen der Krise die theoretische Revolution in der Geschichte des Denkens wie eine Lokomotive wirkt". Heute wäre die Behauptung nicht mehr übertrieben, daß sein Werk - gegenüber den mechanistischen und dogmatischen Schemata stalinistischen Zuschnitts - eine solche Rolle gespielt hat, während Poulantzas selbst eine bestimmte Form des „politischen Eingriffs" in genau umrissene politische Situationen praktizierte. Und diese Orientierung seiner theoretischen Arbeit tritt mit aller Deutlichkeit in seinen bisherigen Werken hervor. Das gilt auch für seinen erst kürzlich publizierten Essay „L 'Etat, Je Pouvoir, Je Socialisme", deutsch: Staatstheorie (Hamburg 1978), in dem er scharfsinnig und klar über das reflektiert, was er den ,autoritären Etatismus' nennt - eine neue Staatsform, die dabei ist, sich in den Ländern des entwickelten Kapitalismus, in den europäischen Ländern, herauszubilden.Occasionally he has been accused of formalism and abstractness. Nevertheless, despite all the criticism that can be voiced against it, the work of this Paris-based Greek undoubtedly constitutes one of the most solid and original contributions to contemporary Marxism. A decade ago, in describing his own spiritual development, Nicos Poulantzas wrote that "in epochs of crisis, the theoretical revolution in the history of thought acts as a locomotive". Today it would no longer be an exaggeration to claim that his work played such a role - against the mechanistic and dogmatic schemata of Stalinism - while Poulantzas himself practised a certain form of "political intervention" in precisely defined political situations. And this orientation of his theoretical work emerges with all clarity in his previous works. This also applies to his recently published essay "L 'Etat, Je Pouvoir, Je Socialisme", German: Staatstheorie (Hamburg 1978), in which he sharply and clearly reflects on what he calls 'authoritarian etatism' - a new form of government that is in the process of forming in the countries of developed capitalism, in the European countries

Theorising Disability: Beyond Common Sense

This article seeks to introduce the topic of disability to political theory via a discussion of some of the literature produced by disability theorists. The author argues that these more radical approaches conceptualise disability in ways that conflict with ‘common-sense’ notions of disability that tend to underpin political theoretical considerations of the topic. Furthermore, the author suggests that these more radical conceptualisations have profound implications for current debates on social justice, equality and citizenship that highlight the extent to which these notions are also currently underpinned by ‘common-sense’ notions of ‘normality’

Sociologia delle comunicazioni

[Δε διατίθεται περίληψη][No abstract available

The Political Economy of Myanmar's Transition

This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in the JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ASIA, 07 Feb 2013, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00472336.2013.764143.Since holding elections in 2010, Myanmar has transitioned from a direct military dictatorship to a formally democratic system and has embarked on a period of rapid economic reform. After two decades of military rule, the pace of change has startled almost everyone and led to a great deal of cautious optimism. To make sense of the transition and assess the case for optimism, this article explores the political economy of Myanmar's dual transition from state socialism to capitalism and from dictatorship to democracy. It analyses changes within Myanmar society from a critical political economy perspective in order to both situate these developments within broader regional trends and to evaluate the country's current trajectory. In particular, the emergence of state-mediated capitalism and politico-business complexes in Myanmar's borderlands are emphasised. These dynamics, which have empowered a narrow oligarchy, are less likely to be undone by the reform process than to fundamentally shape the contours of reform. Consequently, Myanmar's future may not be unlike those of other Southeast Asian states that have experienced similar developmental trajectories

Social Psychology of Mental Health: The Social Structure and Personality Perspective

La investigación previa ha puesto de manifiesto la existencia de una asociación entre estructura social y salud mental. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los investigadores se ha centrado en los aspectos psicológicos y psicosociales de dicha relación. El presente trabajo defiende la necesidad de incluir en nuestros modelos teóricos las bases sociales y estructurales del deterioro psicológico. Partiendo de un modelo general, nuestra investigación consideró el papel jugado por diversas variables sociales, ambientales y estructurales (posición social, estresores sociales e integración social), psicológicas (autoestima) y psicosociales (apoyo social percibido). El modelo teórico se puso a prueba utilizando una muestra española (N = 401) que incluía diversas posiciones sociales. Los resultados obtenidos, utilizando el análisis de ecuaciones estructurales, apoyaron nuestro modelo, mostrando el relevante papel jugado por los factores psicológicos, psicosociales y estructurales. A la luz de estos datos, se discuten tanto las implicaciones teóricas como las correspondientes a la intervención.Previous research has revealed a persistent association between social structure and mental health. However, most researchers have focused only on the psychological and psychosocial aspects of that relationship. The present paper indicates the need to include the social and structural bases of distress in our theoretical models. Starting from a general social and psychological model, our research considered the role of several social, environmental, and structural variables (social position, social stressors, and social integration), psychological factors (self-esteem), and psychosocial variables (perceived social support). The theoretical model was tested working with a group of Spanish participants (N = 401) that covered a range of social positions. The results obtained using structural equation modeling support our model, showing the relevant role played by psychosocial, psychological and social, and structural factors. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed

Capital Fixity and Mobility in Response to the 2008-09 Crisis: Variegated Neoliberalism in Mexico and Turkey

The article examines the 2008-9 crisis responses in Mexico and Turkey as examples of variegated neoliberalism. The simultaneous interests of corporations and banks relative to the national fixing of capital and their mobility in the form of global investment heavily influenced each state authority’s policy responses to the crisis at the expense of the interests of the poor, workers, and peasantry. Rather than pitching this as either evidence of persistent national differentiation or some Keynesian state resurgence, we argue from a historical materialist geographical framework that the responses of capital and state authorities in Mexico and Turkey actively constitute and reconstitute the global parameters of market regulatory design and neoliberal class rule through each state’s distinct domestic policy formation and crisis management processes. While differing in specific content the form of Mexico and Turkey’s state responses to the crisis ensured continuity in their foregoing neoliberal strategies of development and capital accumulation, most notably in the continued oppression of workers. That is, the prevailing strategy of accumulation continues to be variegated neoliberalism

State, State Institutions, and Political Power in Brazil

The political conflicts during the Workers’ Party administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff have been driven by disputes between two fractions of the country’s bourgeoisie: the internal and the internationalized bourgeoisie. Their ideologies, policies, institutions, and forms of political representation have determined government policies and outcomes. These processes have unfolded within an authoritarian democracy whose structures have not been challenged by the party. The party’s limited power and continuing timidity have produced an aggressive reaction by the internationalized bourgeoisie and the upper middle class, leading to a severe crisis in the administration of President Dilma Rousseff

Towards a political ontology of state power:A comment on Colin Hay's article

This article offers some critical realist, strategic-relational comments on Colin Hay's proposal to treat the state as an 'as-if-real' concept. The critique first develops an alternative account of ontology, which is more suited to analyses of the state and state power; it then distinguishes the 'intransitive' properties of the real world as an object of investigation from the 'transitive' features of its scientific investigation and thereby provides a clearer understanding of what is at stake in 'as-if-realism'; and it ends with the suggestion that a concern with the modalities of state power rather than with the state per se offers a more fruitful approach to the genuine issues raised in Hay's article and in his earlier strategic-relational contributions to political analysis