The late István Mészáros analyzes political theories from the ancient Greek philosophers forward in “Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State,” edited and introduction by John Bellamy Foster (Monthly Review Press, 2022, 482 pages). The author’s premise is that the state and capitalism dovetail to exploit people and Mother Nature for profit.
This is a systemic dilemma that is pushing humanity and the ecology to the brink. Transcending capitalism means transcendence of the state.
Mészáros’ book consists of three parts, plus Appendices. He meticulously questions the assumptions and conclusions of political theorists from Aristotle to Plato, Hegel, Hobbes, Kant, Locke and Rousseau.
Part One is “From Relative to Absolute Limits: Historical Anachronism of the State.” A central theme is the role of the state in the suppression of labor; from pre-capitalist societies e.g., slave (master) and feudal (lord), to capitalism (employer).
Accordingly, since the Industrial Revolution, labor suppression under the rule of capital, and its state has shaped waged and unwaged work, or human activity in and out of the household. In other words, class and gender oppression are tied up with the enforcement function of the state to create and reproduce social conditions that shift an economic surplus away from the bottom and middle to an elite.
This political economy appears as natural as a sunrise. System apologists, such as the theoreticians who Mészáros interrogates, use language of freedom to mask the opposite. The surface of this social structure, however, stands in stark contrast to its reliance on coercion and compulsion, with (weaponry) and without (ideology) force.
Mészáros writes thusly. “The materially grounded common denominator of all antagonistic political formations, from the most ancient empire-building attempts to the present-day “democratic systems,” is the class-exploitative production and extraction of surplus labor.”
Part Two is “The Mountain We Must Conquer: Reflections on the State.” The author opens it with a series of provocative questions such as why are states unable to solve the most pressing problems facing everyday people.
Worsening climate crisis and warfare come to mind. Adopting a Marxian, that is a materialist, view, he disentangles “the mountain before us” as threats to planetary survivability bear down on humanity.
Two major theoretical works on the state that Mészáros drills down on are Hobbes’ “The Leviathan” and Hegel’s “The Philosophy of Right.” Mészáros compares their writings on the state with those of Karl Marx.
Famously, Marx called for the withering away of the state. Its role is central to reproducing the social conditions for the infinite drive of capitalism to grow, though the Earth’s resources are finite.
Given this structural feature of the planet and world market, nation-states lack a global state to manage conflicts. The United Nations’ impotence against Israel’s Palestinian Holocaust since Oct. 7, 2023, is a case in point.
Mészáros devotes Appendix 4 to the issue of the state withering away. On a related note, the author explores the limits of “political decision-making“ in his critique of achieving human liberation.
Overcoming the obstacle of the state and capitalism harming labor and Nature involves comprehension of this system’s historical obsolescence. The rising threat to all life is pressing down as pandemics, war and weather events become a new normal.
“Ancient and Modern Utopias” is the third and last part of “Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State.” Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia” is one of the works that Mészáros considers in part because it highlights the drive of a social order that creates the absurd inequality and instability of the system now.
Breaking through the boundaries of the state-capital-labor system of extraction and exploitation requires new ways of organizing, mobilizing and thinking. To this end, “Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State” is an important book.
Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento, California. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2024
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