Louis Proyect wrote: >> This assumes that the wishes of the big bourgeoisie get translated into >> action automatically. I think that there is a certain autonomy at work in >> the state as Poulantzas tried to explain. For Obama to be effective, he >> would have to rise above the state in a Bonapartist fashion but he simply >> lacks the psychological and political makeup to move in that direction. He >> is no FDR, to say the least.
Doug: > You've got a point. I guess the best Bonapartist is an aristocrat, not an > arriviste. but even FDR's "Bonapartism" was not very good in the early New Deal. The NRA, for example. Needed was mass pressure from the left. anyway, aren't Bonapartists usually military figures? like Bonaparte himself? He _became_ an aristocrat. As an arriviste (from Corsica of all places!), he pulled himself up by his own bloody bootstraps... (if we were to ask the French in 1789 how likely it was that a Corsican would become head of state, it's possible that the chance would be similar to asking someone in the US in 2006 how likely it would be that a Black man would become US president.) -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
