IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2004-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Ideological State Apparatuses, Consumerism, and U.S. Capitalism: Lessons for the Left

Author

Listed:
  • Richard D. Wolff

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Abstract

Althusser's pioneering concept of "ideological state apparatuses" is extended to the unique role of consumerism as a particular ideology enabling and supporting U.S. capitalism. It is argued that rising levels of worker consumption have functioned effectively to compensate workers for (and thereby allow) rising rates of exploitation and their negative social effects. For such compensation to succeed requires that workers embrace an ideology stressing the importance of consumption, namely consumerism. It is argued that the weakness of the US left (in labor unions, parties, and movements) stems in part from having endorsed this consumerism rather than undermining it within the framework of an anti-capitalist politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard D. Wolff, 2004. "Ideological State Apparatuses, Consumerism, and U.S. Capitalism: Lessons for the Left," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2004-07, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2004-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2004-07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Resnick, Stephen A. & Wolff, Richard D., 1989. "Knowledge and Class," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226710235.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sophie Webber, 2015. "Randomising Development: Geography, Economics and the Search for Scientific Rigour," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 106(1), pages 36-52, February.
    2. Stephen Resnick & Richard Wolff, 2009. "The Class Analysis of Households Extended: Children, Fathers, and Family Budgets," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Graham Cassano (ed.), Class Struggle on the Home Front, chapter 4, pages 86-115, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Spencer, David A, 2000. "The Demise of Radical Political Economics? An Essay on the Evolution of a Theory of Capitalist Production," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(5), pages 543-564, September.
    4. David F. Ruccio, 1991. "Postmodernism and Economics," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 495-510, July.
    5. Sayonee Majumdar, 2018. "Disinterring the Transition Debate in Maoist China," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(1), pages 83-111, June.
    6. Andrew Farrant, 2009. "A symposium on Theodore Burczak’s, Socialism after Hayek," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 281-284, September.
    7. Ruttan, Vernon W., 2006. "Social science knowledge and induced institutional innovation: an institutional design perspective," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 249-272, December.
    8. Ruttan, Vernon W., 2002. "Social Science Knowledge And Institutional Innovation," Staff Papers 13628, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    9. David Dequech, 2008. "Varieties of uncertainty: a survey of the economic literature," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807211223070, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    10. Mark Tomass, 2001. "Incommensurability of Economic Paradigms: A case study of the monetary theories of Mises and Marx," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 221-243.
    11. Snehashish Bhattacharya & Surbhi Kesar, 2020. "Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 387-408, September.
    12. Pedro M. Rey-Araújo, 2020. "The Contradictory Evolution of “Mediterranean†Neoliberalism in Spain, 1995–2008," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 287-311, June.
    13. repec:aly:journl:201705 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. R Francis, 1993. "Representations of Restructuring in the Meat-Packing Industry of Victoria," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 25(12), pages 1725-1742, December.
    15. N P Low, 1990. "Class, Politics, and Planning: From Reductionism to Pluralism in Marxist Class Analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 22(8), pages 1091-1114, August.
    16. Rajesh Joseph & Balmurli Natrajan & Roshni Lobo, 2019. "Domestic workers and the challenges of collectivization: labor NGOs, neighborhoods, apartment complexes," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 46(2), pages 99-109, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exploitation; Consumerism; Ideology; Althusser;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2004-07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniele Girardi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.