Posts tagged: political-theory

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  Seven Theses on the Capitalist Democratic State

  What is the capitalist democratic state and how should it be confronted? The left has typically seen the state either as an instrument of class rule that needs to be "smashed" or, as with social democracy, as a neutral medium which can be wielded by functionaries with the correct ideas. In this, a series of seven theses on the nature and function of the capitalist state, Michael A. McCarthy argues that both are wrong and that we need a reinvigoration of the late work of Nicos Poulantzas for a full, democratic understanding of the state.

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  Essential David Harvey

  Four landmark texts of political theory by David Harvey are now 50% off!

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  Byung-Chul Han: Shanzhai Theory

  There are three kinds of idiots: those who can count, and those who can’t. The ones who can count are obsessed with debunking received ideas and finding the hidden truth behind it. They measure things, calculate, and through the rigorous use of their own idiosyncratic reasoning they know why the earth is flat. Then there’s idiots who want to diverge from received ideas but are more playful, willful, intentionally absurd. Byung-Chul Han reminds us of this kind of idiocy which Deleuze thought characteristic of the philosopher. Is Han this kind of special idiot? Maybe.

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  Jacobin Bookshelf

  The Jacobin series is back! To celebrate, we're offering 40% off the entire series through Sunday, January 26th

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  Elizabeth Povinelli: when the rocks turn their backs on us

  If biopower is the power to make live and let live, then what is geopower? What if the power that lay at the boundary between life and nonlife was becoming more important in the Anthropocene? McKenzie Wark approaches this question through a reading of recent work by Elizabeth Povinelli. 

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  Alain Badiou: We are at a new beginning of Marxist thought

  In this interviewed with the renowned philosopher Alain Badiou around the publication of his latest book Petrograd, Shanghaï (La Fabrique, 2018), he discusses the revolutionary legacy of the twentieth century and the future of Marxist theory.

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  Radicalising democracy: How Hannah Arendt's legacy endures in Barcelona

  In an era in which public trust in political institutions is faltering, could the legacy of Hannah Arendt offer a new departure for democracy? Hettie O'Brien analyses Arendt's model of council democracy, and how Barcelona en Comú are transforming the way democracy works.

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  Philosophy: A Verso Bookshelf

  Our ultimate books on Philosophy and Political Theory.

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  Zombie Manifesto

  This critique of identity is absolutely and emphatically not a proposal that race should be put second or waved away. It is an insistence on recognizing the material reality of race as a social relation, and forming a more adequate theoretical understanding of it that can be useful for struggles against racism.

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  Razmig Keucheyan: "You can try very hard to forget about the existence of capitalism. But capitalism will not forget you."

  In conversation with Juan Dal Maso, Razmig Keucheyan discusses twenty-first century critical theory, the need for strategic thinking, and the Marxist perspective on the environmental crisis. 

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  Liberalism and Racial Slavery: A Unique Twin Birth

  Domenico Losurdo looks at the foundational link between liberalism and Atlantic slavery, and liberal philosophers' shifting positions on slavery in the period between Somersett v Stewart and the American Civil War.

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  Hostages to Democracy

  Focussing on the Indian government's counterinsurgency operations against Maoists in Bastar, Nandini Sundar examines how formal democracy works to subvert popular power.