Re: Thomas Fergusson

[dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx (Doug Henwood)]

At 10:30 AM 4/15/96, rakesh bhandari wrote:

>Doug's critical comments on Thomas Ferguson's work. Ferguson's work
>takes us to the heart of the marxist debate in state theory (reviewed in
>this issue of *Science and Society* by Raju Das).  While I think Ferguson's
>work probably is an extreme version of the instrumentalist theory, I also
>don't think it would be accurate to say that money simply *follows* the
>poll leader.

Obviously not, which is why I criticized Ferguson for a very undialectical
view. Capital manages American democracy quite successfully, but the
management isn't perfect, and so its control of the agenda isn't seamless.
Ferguson seems to think they control *everything*, which is why I think
he's a bit too susceptible to conspiracy theories of politics.

Doug

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