Corrigan on State Theory 22012014

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Undoing the Overdone StateAuthor(s): Philip CorriganSource: The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 19, No. 2,Special Issue on Moral Regulation (Spring, 1994), pp. 249-255Published by: Canadian Journal of SociologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3341347.

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CommentaryandDebate/Commentaire tdebat

Undoing the overdonestate

Philip Corrigan

PreambleStateforms,whose successis measuredby negativecharacteristics,e.g., "they"did notrevolt,"they"do continuetowork,"they"operateas if theydid not havecontempt or"us")orchestrate ndplayuponarepertoire f educative endenciesfar wider than "The State"itself, not least the Very Idea of therebeing "TheState" n the firstplace.Stateformationsare ntensivelyandmaterially ultural n the(at east)doublesense carefullydelineatedby RaymondWilliams: culturalas to ways of living,culturalas to symbolic resources.We have to consider not the componentsorqualities(structuresandrelations)of a thingbuttheconditions for/of a produc-tion.These conditionsare,as always, intensivelyhistorical,however muchtheyareextensively contemporaneously ontextualized.ButI would go so far, now,as to arguethat it is thehistoricalcomplexitiesof construction hatprovidethecontent(s),and the contemporaneous ocial which is the complex context.Stateforms, moreover,arealways produced whether hrough he adhoceryof chaos andcock-up,orthrough heprojected ntentionalityof complexityandconspiracy) against alternativesand oppositions. The lattercan be internallyinward,externally nward,orexternallyoutside:by "internallynward" meancitizens who subvert heir own state;by "externallynward" meanthose whofollow an authorityexternalto the state to which they formallybelong; andby"externallyoutside"I mean those who by virtueof theirnationalityareor arethoughtto be loyal to anotherstate.Sometimes such enemies of the state canhelpfullybecapturedhroughacondensationof allthreecharacteristics: uchhasbeenmoderatelysuccessfullyclaimedbytheorganizeddepictionof the "Terror-ist" as State's EnemyNumberOne.

249anadianJournalof Sociology/Cahierscanadiensde sociologie 19(2) 1994

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Reading GramsciWithinculturesof criticismGramsci eems to takeaplace n aserieswhichgoes,masterfully,from Marx to Engels throughLenin, sometimesTrotsky,moreoccasionallyLuxemburg, arelyStalin,neverMao,andthen,andthenGramsci.Indeedsome havedefined hisepoch,thisera, histime,asGramscism.Likewisea certain"Gramsci"of the post-60s)has been shapedandfiguredinto domi-nance,a Gramsci(forEnglish-language eaders) haped roma certainsort ofreading;yes, a certainsortof performance.The central mportancewithinGramsci'swritingsof hisdevelopedhistoricalsociology of languageuses has recentlybeen recognizedoutside of Italy.AsLynneLawner,editorof one edition of Gramsci'sPrisonLetters,argues:InGramsci'seyesMarxianheorystillneededatrulyhistorical xamination f thenature f the Stateandof civil society,which heStateorganises,repressing rliberatingtsvitalityas thecasemaybe.(Lawner, n Gramsci,1973:48; my emphasis)

The samesource raceshowGramsci'swish to study"intellectuals,"norderto examine"theformationof thepublic spirit n Italy" 1973: 41), extendedtostudying"the concept of the State, which is usually thoughtof as politicalsociety" (Gramsci, 1973: 41). TherebyGramscienlargedhis conception ofhegemony(alreadypresent n his studies of languageuse) to understand tateformsthroughbothdirezione translated s"consent") nddominazione "coer-cion").Hegemonicprojects equire ctionsandsuccessfulclaimsregarding othdirezioneanddominazione.Hence, in my terms,Gramsci'srealizationof thepoliticalsignificanceof cultural orms andthe cultural ignificanceof politicalforms.This s linked o theforms methodological, ritical)ofGramsci' critiqueof bothidealism andcrude materialism.

Gramsci' Bolshevism s revealednotonlyinhisPoliticalWritingsGramsci,1977;1978)but in those culturalwritingswhich havebeenavailable n Englishfor overtenyears.As one of theeditorsof the SelectionsFromCulturalWritings,DavidForgacs,argues n introducinghe section on "Language,inguisticsandfolklore,"Gramsci'snotionof "normative rammar"hows how, like Lenin,Gramscivalorizesstandardanguage here"Italian" ersus"dialects") s intel-lectually/morally, encepoliticallysuperior,n andas a cultural orm(Gramsci,1985).Incontrast, recognizethatacertaingrammar e.g., standardEnglish) sindeed valorized(andforits exchangevalue)withincertain ntellectual,politi-cal, cultural,and commercial ransaction ractices.Gramsci,againlike Lenin(andin very markedcontrast o Mao),sees "folk"cultural orms as "fossilizedandanachronistic,"ndgoesontocritiqueall"localparticularisms."utdespitewhat I think is his coherentBolshevism (a capaciousproblematiquewhichneverthelessdoes have limits of variation) herearemethodologicalguidelinesof thehighestimportanceoranystudyof thestateof things.Central,as I haveindicated, s Gramsci'sretheorization f historicity hereI mean his recogni-tion of thenecessaryand materialhistoricityof language orms.250



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The grammar s a 'history'or a 'historicaldocument': t is the 'photograph'of a specific phaseofa (collective) national anguage,which was formedhistoricallyandcontinuesto develop,orit is thefundamentalraitsof thatphotograph.Thequestion, n thepractical ense,canbe: what s thepurposeof such a photograph?To write the historyof one aspectof civilisation or to modify an aspect ofcivilisation?(Gramsci, quotedin Salamini,1981:37)Salaminiglosses Gramsci' argument hat"learninga grammarmeanslearninga particularnterpretation f the historicalpast."Not only does Gramsciarguethat "normative"and "historical"grammars which he significantly likens to"politics"and "historicalexperience")cannotbe considered or studied sepa-rately,buthe consistently bringsstate forms into his analysesof grammar.Everytime thequestionof languagesurfaces, n one way oranother, t meansthata series of otherproblemsarecoming to the fore: the formationandenlargementof the governingclass, the need toestablishmore intimateand securerelationshipsbetweenthe governinggroupsand the national-popularmass, in otherwordsto reorganize he culturalhegemony.(Gramsci,1985: 183-84)Now thinkof the defendersof thecanon,thefearfulnessaboutambiguity,aboutloss of controlandso on in the United States' "governingclass":andthen, thecomplex crises aboutthe teachingandtestingof "English"and of "History"nthe nationalcurriculumwithin British and Welsh state schooling. And, then,back in the United States,think of the organization"U.S. English."Gramsciis workingtowarda methodologyfor describinghow state formscoercively encouragea certain anguageuse, includingsignifyingperformancesin relation to national state (and/orparty) rituals and other state occasions,notablythose of legal forms.Preformativeutterances hat arelegally required,likestateprovided/regulatedchooling,arecentralbutnot atalluniqueexamplesof legally enforced exact performances.These include the apparently rivial,from reading a form "issued by authority" e.g., a parkingticket), throughrequiredsignaturesaffirmingreceipt(andimplied reading)of suchdocuments,tocompletionof answers o standardized uestions.Theyalsoinclude thesacredsolitudeof "theVote"and thespectatorship f ritualswhichrender hemajority"an audience." Language-use requirementsare central to state forms andformations and are quite impossible to comprehend in terms of either/ordichotomiesof coercion andconsensus;or theirmilitarycorrelateswhich findsuch favourwhen drawnfromGramsci,but not fromMao, GeneralGiap,ChuTeh, or otherpractitionersof actualmilitarystruggles.

"Everyday orms of stateformation" reeveryday orms of doing politics, anontological andepistemologicalset of organizingandregulatingstructures ndpractices which delimits (and disarms)certainways of seeing, representing,thinking,organizing,and, hus,changingnecessity.Determination,n RaymondWilliams's sense of settingof limitsof variation, s as muchatworkwithinthis(normally political) sense of representationas in that sense which is taken(normally)to be cultural.The whole of my preceding argumenthas been anattempt o confuse thatbinarydivide and to show how variationsmay confirma widerregulateduniformity Corrigan,1989).

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What is a thing worth? Value mattersI too ( as so oftenpreviously)haveoverdone"theState" notonly "Thing-ed""it,"but very over-bookedit ). Tryingto talk of what "it" eels like, I amobsessively talkingabout it.Identifications n offer withinrepertoires f stateformsdo notsimplydiffer(in some comfortablemetaphor, s with roletheory,of sets of clothing)but areviolently contradictory.Themuchdesiredandmuchworked or"Individual"sa situation of tormentedand twisted loyalties, performances,positions, andregulatedpersona.Over andagainwithinwhatPhilipAbramscalledpoliticallyorganized subjectionhistoricallyexperienced,contradictory ituations (andattempted tabilizations) anbetraced,have beenspokenof, are heveryvibrantrealrelationsof living historicallywith;andthisis, yes Idorealize,rare,a tensethat is futured, hatbelieves, whichknows,thingscould be different.Contrary o the main drift of all politicalmovementswhich arebooked,intheir all ways overdoingof "theState,"I affirmthat it is only throughtheaccomplishedexperiencesof beingmorethatpeoplecantruly,genuinely,havemore. Moreover this being more cannot conform to any General Line ofsimilarity,anyFive Year Plan of uniformity, ince, contraryo all cook-books,this formof being s alwaysto be(being)discovered, o beimagined, o bebegun,to be built/made, abricated.

But, and it is perhaps he most significantlymaterialbutI shall write, thedifferencesof humanresourcesarethemselvesproducts f differencing hroughidentificationpractices oercivelyencouragednobodywithinrulinggrammars,within state or party forms, chooses the choices, do they?) which in theirbewilderingorganizationalpatterns eriouslyandhurtfullyandviolently dis-organize.It is thusnotonlythat"theState"mostpowerfully nstitutionalizes he(ethical)Idea of "itself,"offeringas its signifyingOtherdifferentlycollocated"Individuals,"ut hat heclassifying grouping) nd ragmentingindividuating)nominationandnumerations conducted hrough tatements,hrough dentify-ing categoriesof its owninventionandutilization.Suchdifferences products fstatework,powerwordsanddividingpractices)cannot hereforebe thegroundson which tostand, he names romwhichtofightback.Ironyandname-claiming(BlackIs Beautiful;QueerandProud) rritate heObviousin vitallyde, re, in-formingways, but, but,but....But there s anothercorpusof which,though ess so thanformerly so I canbebrief),we have heardandseenfar oo littleforfar oolong.Ifstate ormseffectandenactsomething(s) heydo so in somescriptivemannerwhichgoes beyondthe nonetheless important ocial fact that state forms are massively spoken,written;that is signifying.One wilful misreadingof Foucault,whom, as youmightobserve,I amurgingus not to forget, s thatwhat marksoutmodernity smentalization;hatwhich,classically,had been done to and with bodiesis nowdone to and with minds and souls. Foucault'swork tries to constantlyrecall252



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differentialembodimentas the site andsightof powereffects,powerwordsor, inhis own phrase, "programs f power."For all its work of mythificationandmythologizing, state forms within thewider dominantsocial grammar f rulingandregulationactuponbodies, albeit- a matterI am happyto concede - througha miasmicconfusionof namingandclaimingattempts o epistemologize(semiotize)embodimentas amatterofsigns, of signs thatmatter.As I havearguedbefore,modes of addressand formsof dressarepartof requiredperformativeutterances n whichverysmallunits oflanguage("Yes,""No,""Don'tKnow")andclothing(thereareoccasions withinEnglishmale sociality when to be tieless is to be treatedas disabled;the skirt-dress/trousers"choice"for women is a similar conic node) aredrainedof anyillocutionaryforce because that is which prescribesand,often, inscribes,theirenactment.Contradictory necessities of "the thing"/it-selfFirst, relax, a little fable.There is a greatdeal of agreementamongsocial scientists as to how the state shouldbe defined.Acomposite definitionwould include three elements.First,a state is a set of institutions; hese aremannedby the state's own personnel.The state's most importantnstitution s that of the means ofviolence and COERCION.Second,these institutionsareat thecentre of a geographicallyboundedterritory,usuallyreferred o as a SOCIETY.Crucially, he statelooks inward o its nationalsocietyandoutwards o largersocieties in whichit must makeits way; its behaviour n one areacan oftenbe explained by its activities in the other. Third,the state monopolizes rule-makingwithin itsterritory.This tends towardsthecreationof a commonpoliticalCULTUREsharedby all citizens.That s thefirstparagraphn full (withtheorthographyhereemployed)of JohnA. Hall's entry"state"n TheBlackwellDictionary of Twentieth-CenturyocialThought OuthwaiteandBottomore,1990).No, it is nota work of the 1790s, nordoes it, appearancesto the contrary,happilybelong within the early seven-teenth-centurydiscourse of ruling.Against this view of the state,let us discuss some of the Necessities of theState Thing, what the forms are about,to imply the rangeof sparkingplaces,whereassociationalforms couldcohere andorganizeagainst hegrain.Firstweshould recall the Weberianemphases upon state's claiming - successfullyclaiming- monopoliesof variouskinds,andwithinthataBraudelian mphasisupon standardizationwithin territoriesclaimed (being made) uniform and ageneral stressuponuniform"public" anguage practices.Once established allsuch uniformities have to be checked, hence inspectoralregulation,and stateforms operating n orderto acquire nformation includinginformationaboutOtherCountries,partof thatwiderhistoricalsociology of Learning romAbroadwhichneeds muchstudy).As well as units of weight,measure,currency withinmonetization herecomes theabilityto demand axpayments n coinage/notes,notinkind,whether abourservices,orproducts) here s theregistrationof title

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andentitlement,a definitiveattempt onumberand ocate thepeople,includingsome attemptsatoccupational lassifications.These formsthroughwhichpoliticallyorganizedsubjection s established,administered,extended draw upon wider patternsof orderingwithin moral(whether eligiousorsecular, nsofarastheseparations possible)rhetoricsanddepictions.There s much to be said fortheelective affinities andinformativeanalogiesbetweenmodes andprojectsof Christianizationndthoseconcerningtheestablishment f a secular ystemofproperty, ights,monetization, xchangerules,and a proper egal system.Thesepatterns repartlyreproduced ndpartlyproduced hrough he formalinstitutionsand hierarchical atterns f Authority, ivil andmilitary,royalandrepublican, ducativeandcultural.At some pointsome states(by then,often,nation-states)can both be spokenof impersonally as if the state,or cognateterms,couldbe thesubjectof a sentence;couldsayanddo things)andclaim tobeunivocal; herebeingnohigher exceptperhapsa specificallydefinedDeity)orexternalizedauthority.Thismayentail the nationalization f areaswhich inothercountriesremainonly partiallynational.State ormswith aspecificallyeconomicorientationhus, romanearlypointin theirformation,have"an nterest" ncategorizing ypesof abnormalperson:thosedeemed,variously,Mad,Bad, Sick,increasingly ecome"objects" f stateconcern,whetherpitiableor feared(or, as often is the case, carefullydistin-guished as between "able-bodiedpoor"and the "indigentpoor"),as secularstatesareequallyconcernedaboutand interested n mattersof religiousbeliefandseemingly privatebehaviour.

Cartographiesf thekinddescribedabove will also,of course, ncludeactualmapping:often initially concerned with territoriesbut recently colonized/civilized, butclearlywith a navalorothermilitaryorientation s well.Vast recordsarethusaccumulated oncerningobjects, ransactions, ersons,property,and "events": n manycases state formsuniquely acquire(andcandemand)certainkindsof information,whichtheycanthenkeep secret or issuein partial orms.But state forms also, of course, involve doing - the paraphernalia ndephemeraof national states seems worthyof notice: flags, anthems,palaces,statues,places/shrines,cons andtexts,street-names,ownandcity names,andeven a few GreatArchesandother arge-scalememorials.Again a built statememory,partof the lineamentsof theBody Politic.Enough.The list is partialand in so manyways idiosyncratic,otherswouldwrite andorganize t differently.All I amtrying o do is show how unhelpfullystupid it is to talk of "the State" in relation to (e.g., intervening or notintervening) n (forexample)"theEconomic,""theCulture," r"thePolitical"(and more-over,are not ideological forms all over the place here ). Hall'sdefinitional paragraphabove- which I quoted because there is a "new"254



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historical sociology, which I resolutely oppose, engaged in the projectof re-inventingSocial Science with GrandNarrators t certainnodes on the Interna-tional Knowing the Way the Wind is Blowing Association - is miserablyfacile.

All I have suggestedabove is thatwithin thecapacious deo-logics and ideo-grams of "Statism" thejustifying rhetoricsof state forms and those who usethem)thereare silences andambiguitieswhich can be misrecognizedandthusmisreportedandmisrepresented s "accepting" bediences,"antipolitical" pa-thy,or- often as acritiqueof "commonsense"or"tradeunionconsciousness"

-"being" confused, including,centrally, iving andbeing self-contradictory.IwouldplacewhatI have beensketchingwithinacorpusof workwhich Ihavecome to call social analysis (with the intended inkage to psycho-analysis,butshiftingthe normalanalyst-analysand owerrelationsandproviding heembod-ied analysand/analyst),which I see from a variety of representations o be amovement that I feel has elective affinities with historical sociology. Manypreviouslytaken-for-grantedertaintiesaresuspended(that s they float in theair)in order o bettergraspwhat is takingplace,what is going on, in its multiplecontradictorinessuchthat here s not one story,oneversion,oneway of seeing,saying, andthussharing.ReferencesCorrigan,Philip1989 "State formationand classroom practice.Once again on 'MoralRegulation'."In R.Clarkeet al., eds., ReformingCurriculumStudies.London,Ontario: Althouse Press.Gramsci,Antonio1973 Lettersfrom Prison, selected and translatedby Lynne Lawner. New York: Farrer,Strauss,andGiroux;London:Cape.1977 Political Writings1910-1920. London:Lawrence and Wishart;New York: Interna-tional.

1978 Political Writings1920-1926. London: Lawrence and Wishart;New York: Interna-tional.1985 Selections rom CulturalWritings.London:Lawrence andWishart.Outhwaite,William and Tom Bottomore1990 The BlackwellDictionary of Twentieth-Centuryocial Thought.Oxford:Blackwell.

Salamini,L.1981 The Sociology of Political Praxis: An Introductionto Gramsci's Theory. London:Routledge KeganPaul.

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