Law, Society and Political Action: towards a strategy under late capitalism

Preface.............................................................................................. v
1. Introduction.................................................................................. 1
Three Problem Areas............................................................. 1
Materialism and Political Action.......................................... 3
Explanation Without Abolition ........................................... 6
The Plan ofthe Book............................................................. 9
Notes ............................................................... 10
2. Law and Society: the Precedence ofMateriality ............................ 12
Materiality in General ........................................................... 12
Material Structures ............................................................... 14
Economic-material Structures as Determining “In The
Last Instance” ................................................... 16
The Precendence ofthe Material Structures ....................... 18
Material structural change................................................ 18
Change within material structures................................... 19
Law and Society: The Precedence ofMateriality ............... 20
Empirical investigations ................................. 21
Political practice ................................................................. 62
The precedence ofmateriality: some conclusions........... 71
Notes ......................... 75
3. Law and Society: the Feedback Effect ofthe Law .......................... 76
Introduction ............................................................................ 76
The Legal Superstructure...................................................... 77
The legal superstructure: objective feedback .................. 80
The legal superstructure: subjective feedback ................ 86CONTENTS
Legal Production ................................................................... Ill
Legal production: objective feedback effect..................... 112
Legal production: subjective feedback effect .................. 115
Legal Norms .......................................................................... 132
Legal norms: objective feedback effect............................ 133
Legal norms: subjective feedback effect .......................... 140
Conclusions: Materiality and Ideology ............................... 144
Notes ...................................................................................... 146
4. Law and Society: Parts and Totality............................................ 148
The Parts as a Whole: Reciprocal Necessity ....................... 148
The Parts as Totality: Reciprocal Change........................... 150
Further Discussion on Reciprocal Change .......................... 152
Still Further Discussion on Reciprocal Change ................. 154
The Parts in the Totality: A Dialectical Relationship? ....... 156
The parts of the whole: different systems of ideas at the
same point in time ............................................................. 158
The parts of the whole: the same system of ideas at
different points in time...................................................... 160
The parts of the whole: different systems of ideas at
different points in time...................................................... 165
Closing comment: on the ‘superconstruction’ ............... 179
Notes ...................................................................................... 186
5. What Is To Be Done? .................................................................. 190
A Platform.............................................................................. 190
The Political Situation in General Terms............................ 194
Politically relevant material conditions ........................... 196
The political efficiency of the absorbent society:
‘Defining In’ and ‘Defining Out’...................................... 224
Political Strategy Under Late Capitalism: the Unfinished 226
On contradiction ............................................................... 227
On competition ................................................................. 229
The competing contradiction: the unfinished ............ 231
More About the Unfinished ................................................. 237
More about crossing boundaries ...................................... 237
More about totality ........................................................... 239
On Concrete Organizing....................................... ............. 250
Should the organizing process take pla,ce jn a political
party? .................................................................................. 250
The point ofdeparture in concrete issues........................ 253
Disclosure as framework for the concrete issues............ 254
The point ofdeparture in delimited areas ...................... 256
The pursuit ofnew structures .................................... 257
The point ofdeparture in work for abolition ................. 261
The follow-up to defensive work as framework for
abolition.............................................................................. 264
The point of departure in demands which are ahead of
public policy ...................................................................... 265
Following through of the demands as framework for
demands which are ahead ofofficial policy .................... 266
Between reformism and resignation ............................... 267
By Way ofConclusion So Far: Individual and Collectivity 270
Notes ................................................................... 272
6. The Absorbent State ................................................... 277
Introduction.................................................................. 277
The Economic Future ........................................................... 278
The Political Future: The Development ofthe State ......... 283
The state which ‘Defines in’.............................................. 284
The state which ‘Defines Out’ .......................................... 288
The Political Future: The Fate of Repression Abolishing
Movements............................................................................. 299
Notes ...................................................................................... 302
References .................................................................................. 303
Subject Index.............................................................................. 309