Nicos poulantzas

Nicos Poulantzas (Greek: Νίκος Πουλαντζάς; 30 September 1936 – 3 October 1979) was a Greek Marxist political sociologist. In the 1970s, Poulantzas was known, along with Louis Althusser, as a leadingStructural Marxist and, while at first a Leninist, eventually became a proponent of eurocommunism. He is most well-known for his theoretical work on the state. But he also offered Marxistcontributions to the analysis of fascism, social class in the contemporary world, and the collapse of the dictatorships in Southern Europe in the 1970s (e.g. Franco's rule in Spain, Salazar's in Portugal, andPapadopoulos's in Greece).
Contents
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* 1 Life
* 2 Theory of the state
* 3 Legacy
* 4 Major works
* 5 Further reading
* 6 References
* 7 External links[edit] Life

Poulantzas studied law in Greece and was active in the student movement. He moved to France.[1]. He killed himself in 1979 by jumping from a window of his Paris flat.[2]
[edit] Theory ofthe state

Poulantzas's theory of the state was reacting against what he saw as more simplistic understandings within Marxism. Instrumentalist Marxist accounts held that the state was simply aninstrument in the hands of a particular class. Poulantzas disagreed with this, because he saw the capitalist class as too focused on their individual short term profit, rather than on maintaining theclass's power as a whole, to simply exercise the whole of state power in its own interest. Poulantzas argued that the state, though relatively autonomous from the capitalist class, nonetheless functionsto ensure the smooth operation of capitalist society, and therefore benefits the capitalist class. In particular, he focused on how an inherently divisive system such as capitalism could co-exist withthe social stability necessary for it to reproduce itself - looking in particular to nationalism as a means to overcome the class divisions within capitalism. Poulantzas has been particularly...