Foucault, Marx, Poulantzas

["Ricardo Duchesne" <rduchesn@xxxxxxxx>]

> >>You said it Justin:
> >>>  Primarily the social relations of production, i.e., the class
> >>>  relations whose structure ****primarily explains the nature and
> >>>  development of the mode of production, the state, and, less
> >>>  directly, ideology.****


Jim:
> I don't see why the phrase bracketed by asterisks is
"essentialist."
> Instead of saying that the structure of class relations _completely_
> explains the nature and development of X, so that any differences
> among different concrete examples of X represent mere epiphenomena,
> Justin says that the structure of class relations _primarily_ explains
> the nature and development of X. In the latter case, we can see the
> nature and development of X as being overdetermined, as having its
> character determined not only by class relations but by other social
> relations such as those within the family, between ethnic groups, etc.

Every postmarxist is aware of this distinction. If we are going to go
beyond pretensions, answer the following: does war primarily
explains the nature and development of X; does the family primarily
explain the nature and development of X; does etc. explain the
nature and development of X; does X explain the nature and
development of the structure of class relations?