Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

An Annotation of “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses“ by Louis Althusser as published in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (New York: Monthly Review Press 2001)

Louis Althusser was a French-Marxist Philosopher whose essay Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatuses expanded upon Marxist theory by considering the role of ideology as the means of explaining why citizens of the State are obedient and why there hasn’t been a revolution against Capitalism.

In terms of structural and post-structualism, Althusser explains why ideology is a structure while ideologies are socially and historically specific and can co-exist under a dominant Capitalist ideology. There are religious ideologies, political ideologies and social ideologies such as Christianity, conservatism, and feminism.

Althussers essay sets up the foundation for his descriptive theories by first defining Marxist theories of infrastructure and superstructure and then concentrates on the superstructure, which consist of the political-legal structures of government that he labels Repressive State Apparatuses, and ideology, which he describes in terms of Ideological State Apparatuses. The RSA’s enforce compliance directly through violence. RSA agents include the police and criminal justice system. The ISA’s on the other hand are institutions that generate ideologies and produce culture and the formation of cultural practices designed to preserve the state. Examples include Schools, churches, families, arts, sports, and political parties. Of these examples, Althusser sees schools as exerting the greatest cultural influence towards the maintenance of the existing bourgeoisie power structure because it is the system most responsible for the reproduction of labor and the ideology of career fulfillment.

“Ideology is a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real condition of existence.” Our inability to accept the unacceptable, which is the reality of our existence, leads us to fabricate our reality. It is like the captive falling in love with our captive. Ideology doesn’t reflect the truth of our situation, but instead reflects our relationship to our existence as an exploited proletariat. Another way of describing ideology is to say it doesn’t describe the relationship of production to us, but rather it describes our relation to production. It helps us invent a feeling of self-importance when we are really expendable commodities with the global labor market.

Althusser describes the system of ideology and how we have come to become subjects within it. First we are born into it. Secondly, we always inhabit an ideology by distinguishing our beliefs from the beliefs of others. It functions similarly to the linguistic theory of the conceptual image map. We have to organize ourselves with a belief system that is defined by distinguishing “the others” illusions from ouir “truths” which is our own place within an ideological structure. The third concept of ideology is that it interpellates. It identifies you and calls out to you. It is the call to action within an advertisement. It is the initial response to a greeting by a friend or the sense of guilt when confronted by a police officer. Interpellation is the action of asking you to join the belief system. Ideology is like the poster of Uncle Sam that simply says “I want you!”

Althusser further diagrams ideology as comprising of the subject with a small s and Subject with a capital S. the small s subject is a member of the capital S Subject. Christians are the small s subjects to the capital S Subject of God. The Subject God provides the justification and rules for the ideology and it interpellates subjects to recognizing the validity of its ideology.

Althusser goes on to describe the evolution of Marxism and class struggle as being:

1. The State is a Repressive State Apparatus
2. State power and state apparatuses are distinct
3. Class struggle is over state power and the control of state apparatuses
4. The proletariat must seize state power and create a proletariat state
5. The proletariat must dismantle the State to liberate it from the commoditization of resources.

Ideological State Apparatuses play a very important role within the class struggle. Unlike Repressive State Apparatus, which are uniform and centralized, ISA’s have a plurality that includes didactic discourse. While ISA’s function within the hegemony of Capitalism, debate can occur here, and can ultimately lead to change. It is critical to recognize the plurality of ideology and the room for debate.

Theories of ideology are relevant to artist and media producers because the process of signification through the translation of experience into any medium is in itself an act of interpellation to our audience. Content producers, art or any mass media cannot consider themselves separate from ideology. All communication participates within the an ISA. Artist that produce and exhibit work are participating within an Art ISA. Even if we remove our own voice from our work, ideology will remain because what we express as being significant is defined by our personal beliefs.