Everyday Life and the State'Peter Bratsis breaks new ground, forcing us to think of the connections between big structures and our most intimate inner lives. A fascinating and erudite book.' -Frances Fox Piven, CUNY Nearly four centuries ago, liberal political thought asserted that the state was the product of a distant, pre-historical, social contract. Social science has done little to overcome this fiction. Even the most radical of theories have tended to remain silent on the question of the production of the state, preferring instead to focus on the determinations and functions of state actions. Bratsis argues that the causes of the state are to be found within everyday life. Building upon insights from social, political, and anthropological theories, his book shows how the repetitions and habits of our daily lives lead to our nationalization and the perception of certain interests and institutions as 'public.' Bratsis shows that only by seeking the state's everyday, material causes can we free ourselves from the pitfalls of viewing the state as natural, inevitable, and independent from social relations. |
Contents
Political Corruption as Symptom of the Public Fetish or Rules | |
The National Individual and the Machine of Enjoyment or | |
Toward an Empirical | |
Tentative Conclusions and Notes Toward Future Study | |
Appendix | |
Bibliography | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract Althusser's analysis ancient Greek apparatuses argued argument becomes Bob Jessop bodies doctrine body politic bourgeois society capitalist Castoriadis causal chapter citizens cohesion concept of corruption concurrent constitutes contemporary corrupt conduct culture definition discourse discussion distinction division Elias empirical enjoyment ethic everyday practices examined example exchange-value explain fetish function gift Greek Americans Henri Lefebvre ICAC idea identify ideology institutions interpellation Jessop Kantorowicz Kantorowicz 1957 king libidinal value Marx Marxist material Miliband mirror stage modern national identity national individual national political community Nicos Poulantzas noted object official organization particular Pêcheux polis political corruption political theory position Poulantzas Poulantzas’s presupposes private interests psychoanalysis public and private public servant public/private split question Ralph Miliband reference relation rituals rules of separation sense Shuster significant simply situation comedies social existence state-idea state’s symbolic order theorists unity W. E. B. Du Bois Žižek