Nicos Poulantzas Was a Vital Theorist of Democratic Socialism
Left political strategies have traditionally divided between social democratic parliamentarism and the Leninist idea of “smashing the state.” Nicos Poulantzas argued that neither strategy was adequate and developed his own vision of “revolutionary reformism.”
The Petrograd Soviet in 1917. (Wikimedia Commons)
The publication of Nicos Poulantzas’s Political Power and Social Classes (1968) and Ralph Miliband’s The State in Capitalist Society (1969) initiated a return to the question of the state in political science and sociology after a long hiatus during which mainstream social scientists had discarded the concept. Since that time, there has been an ongoing preoccupation with theories of the capitalist state among scholars. Meanwhile, the return of democratic socialism to national political agendas in Europe and North America has led to renewed debates about political tactics.
Tactics comprise immediate actions, or methods of conduct, that are carefully planned for the purpose of reaching a clearly defined goal. However, most contemporary Marxists often fail to distinguish between strategy (long-term goals) and tactics (immediate actions). What should be the long-term goal of left political tactics, and does a theory of the capitalist state provide any answer to that question beyond abstract calls for a transition to socialism?
Road Signs
When Poulantzas published his last book, State, Power, Socialism, in 1978, he did so partly because he was intrigued by the question of democratic socialism in the context of the rise of Eurocommunism in Italy, Spain, and France. This development raised the question of the role of the state in the transition to socialism. The reemergence of democratic socialism thus required political theorists and political activists to rethink the question of socialist strategy.
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