Abstract
I would like to explain why I have chosen the concept Electoral Process in preference to other concepts. I would also like to explain why Electoral Processes are more than the formal electoral or voting system of particular countries and why activities and institutions within Electoral Processes are not simply ‘superstructural’ phenomena.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
See T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class (Cambridge University Press, 1950)
and R. Bendix, Nation Building and Citizenship (New York: John Wiley, 1964).
See R. Dahrendorf, Class and Class Conflict in an Industrial Society (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959).
M. Kalecki, ‘Political Aspects of Full Employment’, in Selected Essays on the Dynamics of the Capitalist Economy 1933–1970 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1971) p. 141.
For a biting critique of Lenin’s position on trade unions see R. Hyman, Marxism and the Sociology of Trade Unionism (London: Pluto Press, 1971). Also worth noting is the twist of events in Poland in 1980 which has witnessed the first demand by workers in Eastern Europe for their own political organisation outside a ruling Communist Party. This, as Ivan Szelenyi has commented (ABC Radio, 13 November 1980) is an ironic rebuff to Lenin’s belief that workers could only develop a limited trade union consciousness. In actuality, there is never a situation of ‘pure spontaneity’ as workers already possess varying degrees of consciousness which is either more or less developed.
For an analysis of the all-embracing business activities of the Israelii Histadrut, see F. Zweig, ‘The Jewish Trade Union Movement in Israel’, in S. Eisenstadt, R. Josef and C. Adler (eds), Integration and Development in Israel (New York: Praeger, 1970) pp. 162–84.
Trotsky’s analysis of trade unions was determined by the social struggles up until the end of the 1930s. Consequently, he believed unions could serve as ‘secondary instruments of imperialist capitalism for the subordination and disciplining of workers and for obstructing the revolution, or, on the contrary, the trade unions can become the instruments of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat’. L. Trotsky, ‘Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay (1940), reprinted in T. Clarke and L. Clements (eds), Trade Unions Under Capitalism (London: William Collins, 1977) p. 87. This either/or analysis is inadequate in that many unions are neither revolutionary instruments nor loyal ‘secondary instruments of imperialist capitalism’. In many capitalist societies with free Electoral Processes, the trade union movement is very much divided between right-wing, social-democratic or varying communist or independent political perspectives. For a range of union activity in Europe,
see C. Crouch and A. Pizzorno (eds), The Resurgence of Class Conflict in Western Europe Since 1968, vols 1 and 2 (London: Macmillan, 1978).
For a political economic analysis of the complexity of American budgetary control, see J. O’Connor, The Fiscal Crisis of the State (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973) ch. 3;
and for a critique of Mandel’s and Poulantzas’s views of the EEC, see S. Holland, The UnCommon Market (London: Macmillan, 1980) ch. 6.
For a survey of the extent of poverty in centralised states such as France or Italy, see V. George and R. Lawson (eds), Poverty and Inequality in Common Market Countries (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980).
For a non-Marxist survey of the historical complexities of local state apparatuses, see S. Tarrow, P. Katzenstein and L. Graziano (eds), Territorial Politics in Industrial Nations (New York: Praeger, 1978).
See E. Mandel, Late Capitalism (London: New Left Books, 1975) pp. 496–7. The OECD estimated that, in 1976, about 1 per cent of GDP in OECD countries and about 2 per cent of United States’ GDP were on investment in pollution controls — high enough for capitalist classes to attack the increasing costs of regulation.
OECD figures cited by W. Kaspar et al., Australia at the Crossroads (Sydney: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980) pp. 100–1.
The attack on regulatory controls is one of the principal themes of Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose (London: Macmillan, 1979).
G. Esping-Andersen, ‘Comparative Social Policy and Political Conflict in Advanced Welfare States: Denmark and Sweden’, International Journal of Health Services, vol. 9, no. 2, 1979, pp. 269–93.
See N. Chomsky and E. S. Herman, The Political Economy of Human Rights, vol 1 (Boston, Mass.: South End Press, 1979) for a detailed account of United States government support for many regimes which violated human rights.
See G. Therbom, What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules? (London: New Left Books, 1978) pp. 190–5;
also N. Poulantzas, State Power and Socialism (London: New Left Books, 1978) pp. 232–41.
For accounts of the vital roles played by military regimes in the administration and accumulation of capitalist production in Latin American and other Third World countries, see J. Petras, Critical Perspectives on Imperialism and Social Class in the Third World (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1978) ch. 3
and R. Luckham, ‘Militarism: Force, Class and International Conflict’, Institute of Development Studies Bulletin, vol. 9, no. 1, July 1977, pp. 19–32. A good example of the ‘relative autonomy’ of the military (unencumbered by the ‘checks and balances’ of a free Electoral Process) is the forced amalgamation of private companies in South Korea during late 1980 in order to overcome serious problems in accumulation.
For an analysis of the residues of pre-capitalist social values and practices which capitalist societies parasitically depend upon — racism, sexism, religious and social bigotry — see J. Habermas, Legitimation Crisis (Boston, Mass: Beacon Press, 1975) pt 2.
Copyright information
© 1983 Boris Frankel
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Frankel, B. (1983). Overcoming the Dichotomy of ‘The State’ and ‘Civil Society’: The Importance of Electoral Processes. In: Beyond the State?. Contemporary Social Theory. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17227-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17227-6_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-29421-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17227-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)