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State Power
Bob Jessop presents an up-to-date account of his distinctive approach to the dialectics of structure and strategy in the exercise of state power. While his earlier work critically surveys other state theories, this book focuses on the development of his own strategic-relational approach. It introduces its main sources, outlines its development, applies this approach to four case studies, and sketches a strategic-relational research agenda. Thus the book presents a comprehensive theoretical statement of the approach and guidelines for its application. Key features of the book an account of the authors theoretical development; a review of recent developments in state theory and the cultural turn in political economy; critical strategic-relational re-readings of major state theorists Marx on political representation, Gramsci on the spatiality of state power, Poulantzas on the state as a social relation, and the later Foucault on statecraft; applications of the strategic-relational approach to important issues concerning the contemporary its gendered selectivity, the future of the national state, the states temporal sovereignty, and the relevance of multi-scalar meta-governance in Europe for the more general future of the state. The book concludes with recommendations for future strategic-relational research in political economy and state theory.
- GenresNonfiction
200 pages, Hardcover
First published November 21, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 12, 2025
A book of high highs and low lows. The chapters on the sources of the strategic-relational approach (SRA) in critical social science, and in particular those on Gramsci, Poulantzas, Foucault, and the similarities/divergences in each of their thoughts, are brilliant. Some of the best overviews of (admittedly only specific themes in) the thinking of some very complex thinkers that are out there, at least in my opinion: Jessop introduces the perfect amount of complexity to his discussions, adding as much as is needed to really grasp the importance of the ideas presented, without ever lapsing into obscurantism or eclecticism. Very impressive genealogy of a fantasticly useful theory.
The later chapters on applying the SRA, however, were less compelling, because by Jessop's own admission, they focus on *advocating* rather than *applying* the SRA, broadly defined, over and above other dominant approaches to themes including a) gender and the state, b) spatio-temporalities in the social sciences, c) multi-scalar meta-governance in and by the EU, and d) semiosis and complexity theory. This gives the discussions a vagueness and lack of analytical rigour that could have easily been solved if Jessop had only been concerned with advocating and hence implementing a particular variant of the SRA. Not that a desire to retain the generative theoretical openness of the SRA is a bad thing, I'm only saying that this could have been done without sacrificing more robust analyses from a mind as intelligent and original as Jessop's, on the altar of advocating the SRA only in broad terms.
Also, I do have to say that the chapter on "Gender Selectivities of the State" is absolutely shocking for it's failure to engage with Marxist-feminist contributions to this theme. Jessop explicitly starts from the assumption that "the debate has moved well beyond the assumption that... [patriarchy] can be derived from the logic(s) of production and/or reproduction in capitalist societies" (p161 in my edition), an axiom which completely disregards the central insight of social reproduction theory, and consequently absents Marxism and it's associated categories (capital, value, exploitation, etc) from the analysis altogether. Jessop thus lapses into a notably strange and esoteric (for a broadly Marxist-aligned thinker) discussion of patriarchy as a peculiar survival of the feudal mode of production, whose cultural (*not* economic) staying power has created a reproduction of patriarchy in the modern era *despite* capitalism's tendency to eliminate such differences. Empirically also, and by extension, the theory outlined in the sections before this chapter completely disappears, and is replaced by a more or less purely descriptive "analysis" (big air-quotes here) of how particular state-institutional and broader politico-cultural (again, not economic) arrangements create an inertial, path-dependant tendency towards the cementation of gender-unequal forms of representation within and intervention by the state. An absolute joke of a contribution to be honest, just so impoverished: like genuinely, how can you be a Marxist engaging with questions of patriarchy, and not engage at all with names like Silvia Federici, Lisa Vogel, Maria Mies, Heidi Hartmann, etc. Horrendous.
The later chapters on applying the SRA, however, were less compelling, because by Jessop's own admission, they focus on *advocating* rather than *applying* the SRA, broadly defined, over and above other dominant approaches to themes including a) gender and the state, b) spatio-temporalities in the social sciences, c) multi-scalar meta-governance in and by the EU, and d) semiosis and complexity theory. This gives the discussions a vagueness and lack of analytical rigour that could have easily been solved if Jessop had only been concerned with advocating and hence implementing a particular variant of the SRA. Not that a desire to retain the generative theoretical openness of the SRA is a bad thing, I'm only saying that this could have been done without sacrificing more robust analyses from a mind as intelligent and original as Jessop's, on the altar of advocating the SRA only in broad terms.
Also, I do have to say that the chapter on "Gender Selectivities of the State" is absolutely shocking for it's failure to engage with Marxist-feminist contributions to this theme. Jessop explicitly starts from the assumption that "the debate has moved well beyond the assumption that... [patriarchy] can be derived from the logic(s) of production and/or reproduction in capitalist societies" (p161 in my edition), an axiom which completely disregards the central insight of social reproduction theory, and consequently absents Marxism and it's associated categories (capital, value, exploitation, etc) from the analysis altogether. Jessop thus lapses into a notably strange and esoteric (for a broadly Marxist-aligned thinker) discussion of patriarchy as a peculiar survival of the feudal mode of production, whose cultural (*not* economic) staying power has created a reproduction of patriarchy in the modern era *despite* capitalism's tendency to eliminate such differences. Empirically also, and by extension, the theory outlined in the sections before this chapter completely disappears, and is replaced by a more or less purely descriptive "analysis" (big air-quotes here) of how particular state-institutional and broader politico-cultural (again, not economic) arrangements create an inertial, path-dependant tendency towards the cementation of gender-unequal forms of representation within and intervention by the state. An absolute joke of a contribution to be honest, just so impoverished: like genuinely, how can you be a Marxist engaging with questions of patriarchy, and not engage at all with names like Silvia Federici, Lisa Vogel, Maria Mies, Heidi Hartmann, etc. Horrendous.
November 15, 2020
Excelente material que constrói a estrutura teórica de Jessop junto com The State: Past, Present, Future. Nesse livro, no entanto, o autor parte às percepções estruturalistas e pós-estruturalistas, enquanto trabalha com perspectivas relacionais, envolvendo análises em voga e passadas.
Recomendo muito!
Recomendo muito!
September 23, 2019
To read this you need to have a well knowledge background on such issues like Marxism, post-structural and others
October 12, 2025
The most elaborated account of the strategic-relational approach (SRA) by Jessop until now
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews