Althussers Kritik der Politik

Louis Althusser is widely regarded as one of the most important Marxist theorists of the 20th century. Drawing on the works of Marx, Lenin and Gramsci, as well as modern political theory and his own experience of authoritarian tendencies in socialist transition societies, he developed highly original ideas on politics and the state. His thinking encompassed debates in epistemology, psychoanalysis, and (post-)-structuralism, influencing thinkers such as Balibar, Butler, Derrida, Foucault, Hall, Negri, Poulantzas, and Žižek. As a 'Marxist in philosophy', he developed a materialism of contingency. His concept of 'ideological state apparatuses' continues to shape debates on critical state theory to this day. This marked the beginning of a 'critique of politics', the outlines of which are discussed in this volume.