Undoing the Overdone State Author(s): Philip Corrigan Source: The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie,

Vol. 19, No. 2, Special Issue on Moral Regulation (Spring, 1994), pp. 249-255 Published by: Canadian Journal of Sociology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3341347 . Accessed: 08/07/2013 12:54
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Canadian Journal of Sociology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

et Commentaryand Debate/Commentaire debat

Undoing the overdone state
Philip Corrigan

Preamble Stateforms,whose success is measuredby negativecharacteristics, (e.g., "they" did not revolt, "they"do continueto work, "they"operateas if they did not have of educativetendencies andplayupona repertoire contemptfor "us")orchestrate Idea of there being "The far wider than "The State" itself, not least the Very State"in the first place. Stateformationsareintensivelyandmateriallyculturalin the (atleast) double sense carefully delineatedby RaymondWilliams:culturalas to ways of living, culturalas to symbolic resources.We have to consider not the components or and relations)of a thing but the conditionsfor/of a producqualities (structures tion. These conditionsare,as always, intensivelyhistorical,however much they contextualized.But I would go so far, now, areextensively contemporaneously as to arguethat it is the historicalcomplexities of constructionthat provide the content(s), and the contemporaneoussocial which is the complex context. State forms, moreover,are always produced(whetherthroughthe adhocery of chaos and cock-up, or throughthe projectedintentionalityof complexity and conspiracy) against alternativesand oppositions. The latter can be internally inward"I mean inward,externallyinward,or externallyoutside:by "internally citizens who subverttheir own state;by "externallyinward"I mean those who follow an authorityexternalto the state to which they formallybelong; and by "externallyoutside" I mean those who by virtue of their nationalityare or are thought to be loyal to anotherstate. Sometimes such enemies of the state can suchhas helpfullybe captured througha condensationof all threecharacteristics: been moderatelysuccessfully claimedby the organizeddepictionof the "Terrorist" as State's Enemy NumberOne.
CanadianJournalof Sociology/Cahierscanadiensde sociologie 19(2) 1994

249

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reading Gramsci Withinculturesof criticismGramsciseemsto takea placein a serieswhichgoes, masterfully,from Marx to Engels throughLenin, sometimes Trotsky, more rarelyStalin,neverMao, andthen,andthenGramsci. occasionallyLuxemburg, Indeedsome havedefinedthisepoch,thisera,thistime,as Gramscism. Likewise a certain"Gramsci" (of the post-60s) has been shapedand figuredinto dominance, a Gramsci(for English-language readers)shapedfrom a certainsort of of a certain sort performance. reading;yes, withinGramsci'swritingsof his developedhistorical The centralimportance sociology of languageuses has recentlybeen recognizedoutside of Italy. As Lynne Lawner,editorof one edition of Gramsci'sPrison Letters,argues:
of the nature of the State In Gramsci'seyes Marxian theorystill neededa trulyhistoricalexamination or liberating its vitalityas the case maybe. andof civil society, whichtheStateorganises,repressing (Lawner,in Gramsci, 1973: 48; my emphasis)

in order The same sourcetraceshow Gramsci'swish to study"intellectuals," to examine "theformationof the public spiritin Italy"(1973: 41), extendedto studying "the concept of the State, which is usually thought of as political society" (Gramsci, 1973: 41). Thereby Gramsci enlarged his conception of state hegemony (alreadypresentin his studies of languageuse) to understand as "consent") anddominazione("coerformsthroughbothdirezione(translated actionsandsuccessfulclaimsregarding both cion").Hegemonicprojectsrequire direzione and dominazione.Hence, in my terms,Gramsci'srealizationof the political significanceof culturalformsandthe culturalsignificanceof political s critique forms.Thisis linkedto theforms(methodological, critical)of Gramsci' of both idealism and crudematerialism. s Bolshevismis revealednotonly in his Political Writings Gramsci' (Gramsci, 1977; 1978) but in those culturalwritingswhich have been availablein English forovertenyears.As one of theeditorsof theSelectionsFromCulturalWritings, the sectionon "Language, David Forgacs,arguesin introducing linguisticsand shows how, like Lenin, folklore,"Gramsci's notion of "normative grammar" versus"dialects") as intelGramscivalorizes standard language(here"Italian" form(Gramsci, in andas a cultural hencepoliticallysuperior, lectually/morally, 1985). In contrast,I recognizethata certaingrammar (e.g., standard English)is indeed valorized(andfor its exchangevalue) withincertainintellectual,political, cultural,and commercialtransaction practices.Gramsci,again like Lenin (and in very markedcontrastto Mao), sees "folk"culturalforms as "fossilized andgoes on to critiqueall "localparticularisms." Butdespite andanachronistic," what I think is his coherent Bolshevism (a capaciousproblematiquewhich therearemethodologicalguidelines neverthelessdoes have limits of variation) for any studyof the stateof things.Central,as I have of the highest importance of historicity- hereI meanhis recogniindicated,is Gramsci'sretheorization tion of the necessaryand materialhistoricityof languageforms. 250

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The grammaris a 'history' or a 'historicaldocument':it is the 'photograph'of a specific phase of a (collective) nationallanguage,which was formedhistoricallyandcontinuesto develop, or it is the traitsof thatphotograph.Thequestion,in the practicalsense, can be: whatis the purpose fundamental of such a photograph?To write the history of one aspect of civilisation or to modify an aspect of civilisation? (Gramsci, quoted in Salamini, 1981: 37)

means learning Salaminiglosses Gramsci's argumentthat"learninga grammar of the historicalpast."Not only does Gramsciargue a particularinterpretation that "normative"and "historical"grammars(which he significantly likens to "politics" and "historicalexperience")cannot be considered or studied separately, but he consistently brings state forms into his analyses of grammar.
Every time the question of languagesurfaces,in one way or another,it means that a series of other problemsare coming to the fore: the formationand enlargementof the governingclass, the need to establish more intimate and secure relationshipsbetween the governing groups and the nationalpopularmass, in other words to reorganizethe culturalhegemony. (Gramsci, 1985: 183-84)

Now thinkof the defendersof the canon,the fearfulnessaboutambiguity,about loss of control and so on in the United States' "governingclass": and then, the complex crises aboutthe teaching and testing of "English"and of "History"in the national curriculumwithin British and Welsh state schooling. And, then, back in the United States, think of the organization"U.S. English." Gramsci is working toward a methodology for describinghow state forms coercively encouragea certainlanguageuse, includingsignifying performances in relation to national state (and/or party) rituals and other state occasions, utterancesthat are legally required, notably those of legal forms. Preformative like stateprovided/regulated schooling,arecentralbutnot at all uniqueexamples of legally enforced exact performances.These include the apparentlytrivial, from reading a form "issued by authority"(e.g., a parking ticket), through requiredsignaturesaffirmingreceipt(andimplied reading)of such documents, to completionof answersto standardized questions.They also includethe sacred of ritualswhich renderthe majority solitude of "theVote" andthe spectatorship "an audience." Language-use requirementsare central to state forms and formations and are quite impossible to comprehend in terms of either/or dichotomies of coercion and consensus;or their militarycorrelateswhich find such favour when drawnfrom Gramsci,but not from Mao, GeneralGiap, Chu Teh, or other practitionersof actualmilitarystruggles. areeverydayformsof doing politics, an "Everydayforms of stateformation" and ontological and epistemological set of organizingand regulatingstructures which delimits certain of (and disarms) practices ways seeing, representing, in Raymond thinking,organizing,and,thus,changingnecessity.Determination, Williams's sense of setting of limits of variation,is as much at work within this (normally political) sense of representationas in that sense which is taken (normally) to be cultural.The whole of my preceding argumenthas been an attemptto confuse thatbinarydivide and to show how variationsmay confirm a wider regulateduniformity(Corrigan,1989). 251

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

What is a thing worth? Value matters! I too ( as so often previously)have overdone"theState"(not only "Thing-ed" "it," but very over-booked it!). Trying to talk of what "it"feels like, I am obsessively talkingaboutit. on offer withinrepertoires Identifications of stateformsdo not simply differ as with role theory,of sets of clothing)but are (in some comfortablemetaphor, The muchdesiredandmuchworkedfor "Individual" is violently contradictory. a situation of tormentedand twisted loyalties, performances,positions, and regulatedpersona.OverandagainwithinwhatPhilipAbramscalled politically organized subjection historically experienced, contradictorysituations (and canbe traced,havebeenspokenof, arethe veryvibrant stabilizations) attempted realrelationsof living historicallywith;andthis is, yes I do realize,rare,a tense thatis futured,thatbelieves, which knows, things could be different. Contraryto the main driftof all political movementswhich are booked, in their all ways overdoing of "the State,"I affirm that it is only throughthe accomplishedexperiencesof being morethatpeople can truly,genuinely,have more. Moreover this being more cannot conform to any General Line of to all cook-books, similarity,any Five YearPlanof uniformity,since, contrary this formof beingis alwaysto be (being)discovered,to be imagined,to be begun, to be built/made,fabricated. But, and it is perhapsthe most significantlymaterialbut I shall write, the of differencingthrough differencesof humanresourcesarethemselvesproducts identification within (nobody rulinggrammars, practicescoercivelyencouraged within state or party forms, chooses the choices, do they?) which in their bewilderingorganizational patternsseriously and hurtfullyand violently disthe organize.It is thusnot only that"theState"mostpowerfullyinstitutionalizes (ethical) Idea of "itself,"offeringas its signifying Otherdifferentlycollocated andfragmenting butthattheclassifying(grouping) "Individuals," (individuating) is conductedthroughstatements, nominationand numeration throughidentifyof ing categoriesof its own inventionandutilization.Suchdifferences(products and cannot therefore be the statework,powerwords dividingpractices) grounds on whichto stand,the namesfromwhichto fightback.Ironyandname-claiming the Obvious in vitally de, re, in(Black Is Beautiful;Queerand Proud)irritate but.... formingways, but, but, But thereis anothercorpusof which, thoughless so thanformerly(so I can be brief),we haveheardandseenfartoo littleforfartoo long. If stateformseffect which goes beyond andenact something(s)they do so in some scriptivemanner social fact that state forms are the nonetheless important massively spoken, written;that is signifying. One wilful misreadingof Foucault,whom, as you mightobserve,I am urgingus not to forget,is thatwhatmarksout modernityis thatwhich, classically,hadbeen done to andwith bodies is now mentalization; done to and with minds and souls. Foucault'swork tries to constantlyrecall 252

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

differentialembodimentas the site andsight of powereffects,powerwordsor, in of power." his own phrase, "programs For all its work of mythificationand mythologizing, state forms within the wider dominantsocial grammar of rulingandregulationact upon bodies, albeit - a matterI am happy to concede - througha miasmic confusion of naming andclaiming attemptsto epistemologize (semiotize) embodimentas a matterof signs, of signs thatmatter.As I have arguedbefore, modes of addressand forms of dress arepartof required utterancesin which very small units of performative language("Yes,""No,""Don'tKnow")andclothing(thereareoccasions within English male sociality when to be tieless is to be treatedas disabled;the skirtdress/trousers"choice"for women is a similariconic node) are drainedof any illocutionaryforce because that is which prescribesand, often, inscribes, their enactment. Contradictory necessities of "the thing"/it-self First, relax, a little fable.
There is a great deal of agreementamong social scientists as to how the state should be defined. A composite definition would include three elements. First, a state is a set of institutions;these are mannedby the state's own personnel.The state's most important institutionis that of the means of violence and COERCION.Second, these institutionsare at the centre of a geographicallybounded territory,usually referredto as a SOCIETY.Crucially,the state looks inwardto its nationalsociety and outwardsto largersocieties in which it must make its way; its behaviourin one areacan often be explained by its activities in the other. Third, the state monopolizes rule-making within its territory.This tends towardsthe creationof a common political CULTUREsharedby all citizens.

Thatis the first paragraph in full (with the orthography thereemployed) of John A. Hall's entry"state" in TheBlackwellDictionaryof Twentieth-Century Social Thought(OuthwaiteandBottomore, 1990). No, it is not a workof the 1790s, nor does it, appearancesto the contrary,happily belong within the early seventeenth-centurydiscourse of ruling. Against this view of the state, let us discuss some of the Necessities of the State Thing, what the forms are about, to imply the range of sparkingplaces, where associationalforms could cohere andorganizeagainstthe grain.Firstwe should recall the Weberian emphases upon state's claiming - successfully claiming- monopolies of variouskinds, andwithinthata Braudelianemphasis upon standardizationwithin territoriesclaimed (being made) uniform and a general stress upon uniform"public"language practices.Once established all such uniformitieshave to be checked, hence inspectoralregulation, and state forms operatingin orderto acquireinformation(including informationabout OtherCountries,partof thatwiderhistoricalsociology of LearningfromAbroad which needs much study).As well as units of weight, measure,currency(within monetizationtherecomes the ability to demandtax paymentsin coinage/notes, not in kind, whetherlabourservices, or products)thereis the registrationof title 253

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

andentitlement,a definitiveattempt to numberandlocate the people, including some attemptsat occupationalclassifications. These forms throughwhich politically organizedsubjectionis established, administered,extended draw upon wider patternsof orderingwithin moral is possible) rhetoricsand (whetherreligiousor secular,insofaras the separation depictions.Thereis much to be said for the elective affinities and informative andthose concerning analogiesbetweenmodes andprojectsof Christianization of a secularsystemof property, theestablishment monetization, rights, exchange rules, and a properlegal system. arepartlyreproduced These patterns andpartlyproducedthroughthe formal institutionsand hierarchical of patterns Authority,civil and military,royal and and educative cultural. At some point some states (by then, often, republican, nation-states)can both be spoken of impersonally(as if the state, or cognate terms,could be the subjectof a sentence;could say anddo things)andclaim to be univocal;therebeing no higher(exceptperhapsa specificallydefinedDeity) This may entailthe nationalization or externalizedauthority. of areaswhich in othercountriesremainonly partiallynational. Stateformswitha specificallyeconomicorientation thus,fromanearlypoint in categorizingtypes of abnormal in theirformation,have "aninterest" person: thosedeemed,variously,Mad,Bad,Sick,increasingly become"objects" of state whether or feared as often is the concern, case, carefully distin(or, pitiable between "able-bodied and the as guished poor" "indigentpoor"), as secular are about and interested in states mattersof religious belief equally concerned and seemingly privatebehaviour. of thekinddescribedabovewill also, of course,includeactual Cartographies mapping: often initially concerned with territoriesbut recently colonized/ as well. civilized, but clearly with a naval or othermilitaryorientation Vast recordsarethusaccumulated transactions, concerningobjects, persons, property,and "events":in many cases state forms uniquely acquire (and can which they can thenkeep secretor issue demand)certainkinds of information, in partialforms. But state forms also, of course, involve doing - the paraphernalia and of national states seems of notice: ephemera worthy flags, anthems,palaces, town andcity names,and statues,places/shrines,icons andtexts, street-names, even a few GreatArches and otherlarge-scalememorials.Again a built state memory,partof the lineamentsof the Body Politic. Enough.The list is partialandin so manyways idiosyncratic,otherswould write and organizeit differently.All I am tryingto do is show how unhelpfully stupid it is to talk of "the State" in relation to (e.g., intervening or not or "thePolitical" intervening)in (for example)"theEconomic,""theCulture," (and more-over, are not ideological forms all over the place here!). Hall's definitional paragraphabove- which I quoted because there is a "new" 254

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

historical sociology, which I resolutely oppose, engaged in the project of reat certainnodes on the Internainventing Social Science with GrandNarrators tional Knowing the Way the Wind is Blowing Association - is miserably facile. All I have suggested above is thatwithinthe capaciousideo-logics and ideograms of "Statism"(the justifying rhetoricsof state forms and those who use them) there are silences and ambiguitieswhich can be misrecognized and thus as "accepting" obediences, "antipolitical" misreportedandmisrepresented apaa of "common sense"or "trade union consciousness" often as or critique thy, -"being" confused, including, centrally,living and being self-contradictory. I would place whatI havebeen sketchingwithina corpusof workwhich I have come to call social analysis (with the intendedlinkage to psycho-analysis, but powerrelationsand providingthe embodshiftingthe normalanalyst-analysand ied analysand/analyst),which I see from a variety of representationsto be a movement that I feel has elective affinities with historical sociology. Many certaintiesare suspended(thatis they float in the previously taken-for-granted what is takingplace, whatis going on, in its multiple to better in order air) grasp suchthatthereis not one story,one version,one way of seeing, contradictoriness saying, and thus sharing. References
Corrigan,Philip 1989 "State formation and classroom practice. Once again on 'Moral Regulation'." In R. Studies. London, Ontario: Althouse Press. Clarkeet al., eds., ReformingCurriculum Gramsci,Antonio Lettersfrom Prison, selected and translatedby Lynne Lawner. New York: Farrer, 1973 Strauss,and Giroux;London:Cape. 1977 Political Writings 1910-1920. London: Lawrence and Wishart;New York: International. 1978 Political Writings 1920-1926. London: Lawrence and Wishart;New York: International. Selectionsfrom CulturalWritings.London:Lawrenceand Wishart. 1985 Outhwaite,William and Tom Bottomore Social Thought.Oxford:Blackwell. The Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth-Century 1990 Salamini, L. The Sociology of Political Praxis: An Introduction to Gramsci's Theory. London: 1981 Routledge Kegan Paul.

255

This content downloaded from 200.52.255.1 on Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:54:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions