Nicos Poulantzas was born in Athens in 1936 and died in Paris in 1979. His other published works include Political Power and Social Classes, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism, Fascism and Dictatorship and State, Power, Socialism.
How we conceive of the state has profound effects on how we understand political strategy. In this essay, written in response to Michael A. McCarthy's recent intervention, Zachary Levenson and Teresa Kalisz argue that only by seeing the state as truly relational can we avoid the pitfall of placing undue emphasis on organising within the state, rather than the vital work of base building.
In 1977, an intense debate raged in the Greek press between Nicos Poulantzas and Cornelius Castoriadis, sparked by remarks made by Poulantzas in an article that questioned Castoriadis political commitment to ending the dictatorship in Greece, and his position as a high-level economist for the OECD. Here, published in English for the first time, is the record of the debate – published with an introduction by Dimitris Psarras and Dimitris Karidas.
The global far-right is returning at an alarming rate, with the latest example being that of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil (analysed by Perry Anderson in the latest LRB). But, is this fascism? The first thing we need to know before we can answer that is a full definition of fascism as an historical phenomena. In this extract from his republished classic Fascism and Dictatorship, Nicos Poulantzas explains the relationship between fascism and the dominant classes.
