The Repressive State Apparatus

Part 2: The politics of hegemony

This is the second in a series on political theory and the agents of coercion. Part 1 discussed the dialectics of repression.

No state can rule solely by repression. The “special bodies of armed men” are usually the last resort to defend the ruling class, whose domination must be cemented by ideology that guarantees the consent of as much as possible of …