Nicos Poulantzas (1936-1979) was a Greco-French Marxist political sociologist. In the 1970s, Poulantzas was known, along with Louis Althusser, as a leading Structural Marxist and while at first a Leninist, he eventually became a proponent of eurocommunism. He is most well-known for his theoretical work on the state. But he also offered Marxist contributions to the analysis of fascism, social class in the contemporary world, and the collapse of the dictatorships in Southern Europe in the 1970s (e.g. Franco's rule in Spain, Salazar's in Portugal, and Papadopoulos's in Greece). 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... Greece and the Balkans Discussion Forum Internet Travel Service to Greece and Smartest Accommodation Search Engine HR-Net (Hellenic Resources Network)/ comprehensive Greek news site Official Greek Statistics Site Ask for Greece/ A volunteer community for Q&As about Greece Official Tourist Site Greece Museums/ Museum directory of Greece Take... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Political sociology is the study of sociology within the area of politics. ... Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (October 16, 1918 - October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Structuralism is a general approach in various academic disciplines that seeks to explore the inter-relationships between some fundamental elements, upon which higher mental, linguistic, social, cultural etc structures are built, through which then meaning is produced within a particular person, system, culture. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Eurocommunism was an attempt in the 1970s by various European communist parties to widen their appeal by embracing public sector middle-class workers, new social movements such as feminism and gay liberation, rejecting support of the Soviet Union, and expressing more clearly their fidelity to democratic institutions. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Social class describes the relationships between people in hierarchical societies or cultures. ... Francisco Franco Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo de Andrade (December 4, 1892 – November 20, 1975), abbreviated Francisco Franco Bahamonde and sometimes known as Generalisimo Francisco Franco, was Head of State of Spain from 1936 until his death in 1975. ... Antonio Salazar on July 22, 1946 issue of Time Magazine Professor António de Oliveira Salazar (April 28, 1889—July 27, 1970) was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. ... George Papadopoulos (Greek Γεώργιος Παπαδόπουλος, Georgios Papadopoulos, (May 5, 1919 – June 27, 1999) was the head of the military coup détat that took place in Greece on April 21, 1967 and leader of the military government that ruled the country during the period 1967 - 1974. ...

Poulantzas's theory of the state was reacting against what he saw as more simplistic understandings within Marxism. Instrumentalist Marxist accounts held that the state was simply an instrument in the hands of a particular class. Poulantzas disagreed with this, because he saw the capitalist class as too focused on their individual short term profit, rather than on maintaining the class's power as a whole, to simply exercise the whole of state power in its own interest. Poulantzas argued that the state, though relatively autonomous from the capitalist class, nonetheless functions to ensure the smooth operation of capitalist society, and therefore benefits the capitalist class. In particular, he focused on how an inherently divisive system such as capitalism could co-exist with the social stability necessary for it to reproduce itself - looking in particular to nationalism as a means to overcome the class divisions within capitalism. Poulantzas has been particularly influential over the leading contemporary Marxist state theorist, Bob Jessop. A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...

Borrowing from Antonio Gramsci's notion of cultural hegemony, Poulantzas argued that repressing movements of the oppressed is not the sole function of the state. Rather state power must also obtain the consent of the oppressed. It does this through class alliances, where the dominant group makes an 'alliance' with subordinate groups, as a means to get the consent of the subordinate group. In his later works, Poulantzas analysed the role of what he termed the 'new petty bourgeoisie' in both consolidating the ruling classes hegemony and undermining the poletariat's ability to organise itself. By occupying a contradictory class position, that is to say, by identifying with its de facto oppressor, this fraction of the working class throws its lot in with the bourgeois whose fate it (wrongly) believes it shares. The fragmentation (some would argue the demise) of the class system is, for Poulantzas, a defining characteristic of late capitalism and any politically useful analysis must tackle this new constellation of interests and power. An example of this can be seen in a Poulantzas-influenced analysis of the New Deal in the United States: the American ruling class, by acceding to some of the demands of labour (regarding things like minumum wage, labour laws, etc.), helped cement an alliance between labour and a particular fraction of capital and the state [Levine 1988]. This was necessary for the continued existence of capitalism, for if the ruling class simply repressed the movements and avoided making any concessions, it could have led to a socialist revolution. Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician, leader and theorist of Socialism, Communism and Anti-Fascism. ... Cultural hegemony is the concept that a diverse culture can be ruled or dominated by one group or class, that everyday practices and shared beliefs provide the foundation for complex systems of domination. ... The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelts legislative agenda for rescuing the United States from the Great Depression. ...

Poulantzas provides a nuanced analysis of class structure in an era when the internationalisation of production systems (today 'globalisation') was shifting power from labour to capitalist classes. In many areas, he foresaw the current debate on The critical marxian language of 'class', 'bourgeoisie', and 'hegemony' finds little echo in contemporary political science where its positivism requires researchers to focus on putative measurable and objective entities. However, by placing class analysis at the center of political analysis, Poulantzas reminds us that theorists are political agents themselves and that accounts of the political world are suffused with the ambient ideology that they suppose themselves to bracket.

Major works

• Poulantzas, Nicos. Political power and social classes. NLB, 1973 (orig. 1968).
• Poulantzas, Nicos. Fascism and dictatorship: the Third International and the problem of fascism. NLB, 1974 (orig. 1970).
• Poulantzas, Nicos. Classes in contemporary capitalism. NLB, 1975 (orig. 1973).
• Poulantzas, Nicos. The crisis of the dictatorships: Portugal, Greece, Spain. Humanities Press, 1976.
• Poulantzas, Nicos. State, power, socialism. NLB, 1978.

Further reading

• Jessop, Bob. Nicos Poulantzas: Marxist theory and political strategy. Macmillan, 1985.
• Levine, Rhonda. Class struggle and the New Deal: industrial labor, industrial capital, and the state. University Press of Kansas, c1988.