Ideological State Apparatus

The Ideological State Apparatus are private institutions that use Ideology to manipulate and control the working classes in order to reproduce the Working Classes

Mechanisms of Reproduction

Mechanisms of Reproduction > State Apparatus, The State, Toxic Socialization

Elements of the State Apparatus

State Apparatus > Ideological State Apparatus, Repressive State Apparatus

Related LP Terms

Ideological State Apparatus >

Non-LP Related Terms

Ideological State Apparatus > Education, Final Revolution, Ruling Ideology

Notes

The various ISAs function together because the underlying ideology is "unified, despite its diversity and its contradictions..."

The ISA is a critical aspect of the class struggle.

"To my knowledge, 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. I only need one example and proof of this: Lenin’s anguished concern to revolutionize the educational Ideological StateApparatus (among others), simply to make it possible for the Soviet proletariat, who had seized State power, to secure the future of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the transition to socialism.

This last comment puts us in a position to understand that the Ideological StateApparatuses may be not only the stake, but also the site of class struggle, and often of bitter forms of class struggle. The class (or class alliance) in power cannot lay down thelaw in the ISAs as easily as it can in the (repressive) State apparatus, not only because theformer ruling classes are able to retain strong positions there for a long time, but also because the resistance of the exploited classes is able to find means and occasions toexpress itself there, either by the utilization of their contradictions, or by conquering-combat positions in them in struggle."

Althusser

I shall call Ideological State Apparatuses a certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institutions. I propose an empirical list of these which will obviously have to be examined in detail,tested, corrected and re-organized. With all the reservations implied by this requirement, we can for the moment regard the following institutions as Ideological State Apparatuses(the order in which I have listed them has no particular significance):

• the religious ISA (the system of the different churches),
• the educational ISA (the system of the different public and private ‘schools’),
• the family ISA,
• the legal ISA,
• the political ISA (the political system, including the differentparties),
• the trade-union ISA,
• the communications ISA (press, radio and television, etc.),
• the cultural ISA (literature, the arts, sports, etc.).

What distinguishes the Repressive State Apparatus from the Ideological State Apparatus?

• "As a first moment, it is clear that while there is one (Repressive) State Apparatus, there is a plurality of Ideological State Apparatuses. Even presupposing that it exists, the unity that constitutes this plurality of ISAs as a body is not immediately visible.
• "As a second moment, it is clear that whereas the unified – (Repressive) State Apparatus belongs entirely to the public domain, much the larger part of the Ideological StateApparatuses (in their apparent dispersion) are part, on the contrary, of the private domain. Churches, Parties, Trade Unions, families, some schools, most newspapers, cultural ventures, etc., etc., are private.
• "But now for what is essential. What distinguishes the ISAs from the (Repressive) StateApparatus is the following basic difference: the Repressive State Apparatus functions ‘byviolence’, whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function 'by ideology'.

Note that

"every State Apparatus, whether Repressive or Ideological, ‘functions’ both by violence and by ideology, but with one very important distinction which makes it imperative not to confuse the Ideological State Apparatuses with the (Repressive) State Apparatus.

This is the fact that the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by repression (including physical repression), while functioning secondarily by ideology. (There is no such thing as a purely repressive apparatus.) For example, the Army and the Police also function by ideology both to ensure their own cohesion and reproduction, and in the ‘values’ they propound externally.

In the same way, but inversely, it is essential to say that for their part the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression, even if ultimately, but only ultimately, this is and concealed, even symbolic. (There is no such thing as a purely ideological apparatus.) Thus Schools and Churches use suitable methods of punishment, expulsion, selection, etc., to ‘discipline’ not only their shepherds, but also their flocks. The same of the Family.... The same is true of the cultural IS Apparatus (censorship, among other things), etc."

Quotes

The transition from feudalism to capitalism required an all-out attack on the Feudal ISA (the church, the feudal state) and its replacement with ISAs that could propagate a capitalist ideological hegemony. The article "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" has a great run down of this.

"The foremost objective and achievement of the French Revolution was not just to transfer State power from the feudal aristocracy to the merchant-capitalist bourgeoisie, to break part of the former repressive State apparatus and replace it with a new one (e.g., then ational popular Army) but also to attack the number-one Ideological State Apparatus: the Church. Hence the civil constitution of the clergy, the confiscation of ecclesiastical wealth, and the creation of new Ideological State Apparatuses to replace the religious Ideological State Apparatus in its dominant role."

Footnotes

References