Ideology and the

Ideological State
Apparatuses
Louise Althusser

The State
The theory of the state (Marx)
The State Apparatuses

in order to advance the theory of the state it is

indispensible to take into account not only the
distinction between state power and state
apparatus, but also another reality which is
clearly on the side of the (repressive) state
apparatus, but must not be confused with it. I
shall call this reality by its concept: the
Ideological State Apparatuses.

The ideological State Apparatuses

The repressive: the army, Police the
courts, the prisons etc.
The ideological: a certain number of
different realities which present
themselves to the immediate
observer in the form of distinct and
specialized institutions.
Ex: the church, schools, family, press
etc.

What constitutes the

difference?
The repressive state apparatus functions by
violence. (public)
The ideological state apparatuses function by
ideology. (private)
all the state apparatuses function both by
repression and by ideology, with the difference
that the (repressive) State Apparatus functions
massively and predominantly by repression,
whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses
function massively and predominantly by
ideology.

The Dominant Ideology

no class can hold state power over a

long period without at the same time
exercising its hegemony over in the
State Ideological Apparatuses

Ideology
Was coined by Destutt de Tracy
1796, in the period of the French
revolution, as a label for his
science of ideas.
a system of ideas that dominates the
mind
ideology is a representation of the
imaginary relationship of individuals
to their real conditions of existence.

Ideology has a material

existence
Ideology always exists in an apparatus
I shall therefore say that, where only a single
subject (such and such an individual) is
concerned, the existence of the ideas of his
belief is material in that his ideas are his
material
actions
inserted
into
material
practices governed by material rituals which
are themselves defined by material ideological
apparatus from which derive the ideas of that
subject.

Fundamental notions
Subject
Consciousness
Belief
Action
1. There is no practice except by and in an
ideology;
2. There is no ideology except by subject and
for subjects;
3. Ideology interpellates individuals as
subjects.

Interpellation
There is no practice except by and in
an ideology. Meaning:
There is no ideology except for
concrete subjects, and this
destination of ideology is only made
possible by the subject: meaning, by
the category of the subject and its
functioning.

The functioning of ideology exists in a double

constitution.
the category of the subject is only constitutive
of all ideology insofar as all ideology has the
function (which defines it) of constituting
concrete individuals as subjects.
Ideology is nothing but its functioning in the
material forms of existence of that
functioning

We all live spontaneously in ideology

the man is an ideological animal by
nature
it is in the Logos St Paul.
Its obvious, we can never fail to
recognize it
Example of pre-acquaintance

Recognition
this recognition only gives us the
consciousness of our incessant
(eternal) practise of ideological
recognition

Why the category of the subject

is constitutive of ideology?
All ideology hails or interpellates
concrete individuals as concrete
subjects by the functioning of the
category of the subject.
Example: Policeman

 The process of interpellation insures:

1. A free subjectivity, a centre of
initiatives, author of and responsible
for its actions;
2. A subjected being, who submits to a
higher authority, and is therefore
stripped of all freedom except that
of freely accepting his submission.

Discussion

The question of subjectivity

we need to know how volunteers are
designated in this recruitment (p.
150)

Main critics of Althussers notion of

subjectivity in interpellation
Therborn
Mladen Dolar
Slavoj iek
Judith Butler

Bourdieu
Forms of Capital
capital can present itself in three fundamental
guises: as economic capital, which is
immediately and directly convertible into money
and may be institutionalized in the forms of
property rights; as cultural capital, which is
convertible, on certain conditions, into economic
capital and maybe institutionalized in the forms of
educational qualifications; and as social capital,
made up of social obligations (connections),
which is convertible, in certain conditions, into
economic capital and maybe institutionalized in
the forms of title and nobility.

Cultural capital
The embodied state
The objectified state
The institutionalized state

Quran Translations
Translation and Commentary on The Holy Quran (2000),
by ZohurulHoque.
The Tajwidi Qur'an (2003) by NooruddeenDurkee
The Quran with an English Paraphrase (2003), by
Sayyid Ali QuliQara'i
The Qur'an: A New Translation (2004) by Thomas
Cleary.
The Qur'an (2004), by M.A.S. Abdel-Haleem
The Sublime Qur'an (2007) by LalehBakhtiar
The Qur'an (2007), by Alan Jones
The Qur'an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern
English

 Quran Made Easy: Complete English Translation with Inline

Commentary (2007) by Mufti Afzal Hoosen Elias
The Meaning of the Noble Qur'an (with Explanatory Notes in
two volumes) (2007) by Maulana Muhammad TaqiUsmani.
The Gracious Qur'an: A Modern Phrased Interpretation in
English (2008) by Dr. Ahmad ZakiHammad
The Qur'an: A New Translation (2008) by TarifKhalidi
Quran: A Simple English Translation (2009) by
MaulanaWahiduddin Khan
The Holy Qur'an in Today's English (2010) by Yahiya
Emerick
The Qur'an (2011), by Nazeer Ahmed
The Glorious Qur'an (2011) by Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.
Quran in English: Clear and Easy to Read (2012) by
TalalItani
What is in the Quran? Message of the Quran in Simple
English (2013) by Abdur Raheem Kidwai

 17 cases: 16 cases that have various

components of selection (mostly religious
expertise embodied in a form of an
institutionalized state) and 1 case of
translational expertise only.
The predominant concern was religious
expertise
The secondary concern is transitional
expertise

Correspondence
Cultural capital (institutionalized
state: academic qualifications)
Social capital (the case of Bakhtiar)