repressive state apparatus

is a preserver of order of the existing relations of production by force; be it the police or the courts.

According to Althusser, the Repressive State Apparatus preserves order, the existing relations of production, in which some people have to sell their labour-power to earn a living, and some don’t but live on their investments. If it is directly challenged by revolution or civil disobedience, the Repressive State Apparatus works in the last analysis by force. But many, or perhaps most, of us barely come into contact or collision with the police and the courts. We ‘work by ourselves’, Althusser says, to reproduce the class relations on which capitalism depends, even if these do not serve our long-term interests. The deserving poor of the 19th century reaffirmed the values of that society, even though by doing so they mostly remained poor. Why? Because, in Althusser’s account, the Repressive State Apparatus finds a parallel in the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs), institutions that produce and reproduce the meanings and values which represent the relationship we imagine we have to our real conditions of existence. The ISAs tell us that work is a duty; that work well done is a pleasure; that we are free to get another job if we don’t like this one; that we can move to Cuba if we don’t like capitalism. (The range of places to move to is dwindling fast, of course, as McDonald’s takes over the world for the free market.)

repressive state apparatus, n.All

repressive state apparatus