Louis Althusser – Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

 

Louis Althusser was a Marxist thinker from France who tried to explain how the State controls people in modern society. He said that the State does not control people only by force, but also by ideas and beliefs.

State Apparatus and Repressive State Apparatus

According to Althusser, the State Apparatus includes the government, administration, army, police, courts and prisons. He calls these the Repressive State Apparatus because they mainly use violence or the threat of violence to control people. This repression can be physical, like arrest and jail, or non‑physical, like certain strict administrative actions.

Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs)

Althusser then introduces another idea called Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). ISAs are institutions in society that look separate and normal, but they spread the ruling class’s ideas. He gives an open list of ISAs:

• Religious ISA: churches and other religious organisations.
• Educational ISA: schools, colleges, universities.
• Family ISA: the family system.
• Legal ISA: the law and legal system.
• Political ISA: political parties and the political system.​
• Trade-union ISA: trade unions.
• Communications ISA: press, radio, television and media.
• Cultural ISA: literature, arts, sports and culture.

These ISAs mainly work through ideology, that is, through ideas and values, not through open force.

Difference between RSA and ISAs

There is usually only one Repressive State Apparatus (the State), but there are many different Ideological State Apparatuses. The Repressive State Apparatus belongs fully to the public sphere, while many ISAs are in the private sphere, like churches, families and newspapers. The RSA mainly uses repression and only secondarily ideology, while ISAs mainly use ideology and only secondarily repression (for example, punishment or expulsion in schools or churches).

Unity of ISAs and Ruling Ideology

Even though ISAs look different from each other, they are united because they work under the ruling ideology of the ruling class. The ruling class controls the State power and the Repressive State Apparatus, and it also tries to control the ISAs. No ruling class can keep power for a long time without also having control or hegemony over the Ideological State Apparatuses.

ISAs as a Site of Class Struggle

Althusser says that ISAs are not only tools of the ruling class but also places where class struggle happens. Old ruling classes may keep influence inside ISAs, and exploited classes can resist and sometimes win positions inside ISAs like schools, unions or cultural fields. Thus ISAs become both the stake and the site of struggle between classes.​

Ideology and its Material Existence

Althusser says that ideology always exists in an apparatus and in its practices, and this existence is material. For example, a believer’s ideas about God are expressed in material actions like going to church, kneeling, praying and doing penance. In the same way, belief in Duty or Justice appears in actions like obeying laws, signing petitions or joining demonstrations. So ideas live in actions, practices and rituals that happen inside ideological apparatuses.

Pascal’s Formula and Practice

To explain this better, Althusser uses Pascal’s famous idea: “Kneel down, move your lips in prayer, and you will believe.” This shows that belief can come from practice and ritual, not only from inner thought. Althusser changes the focus from “ideas in the head” to practices, rituals and apparatuses that shape the subject.

Subject, Ideology and Interpellation

For Althusser, there is no practice without ideology, and there is no ideology except by the subject and for subjects. His central point is that ideology “interpellates” or calls individuals as subjects. He gives a simple example: when someone shouts “Hey, you there!” in the street, the person who turns around becomes a subject by recognising that the call is meant for him or her. In the same way, ideology always already calls individuals and makes them into subjects who accept the existing order.

Althusser says that individuals are always already subjects because ideology has always already interpellated them. People feel that being a free, conscious subject is natural and obvious, but this “obviousness” itself is an ideological effect. Ideology makes people believe they are outside ideology, even though they actually live, move and exist inside it.

Conclusion

Althusser explains that the State rules not only by force but also through ideology spread by many institutions in society. Repressive State Apparatuses control people mainly by repression, while Ideological State Apparatuses control them mainly by ideas and beliefs. By interpellating individuals as subjects, ideology helps the ruling class keep its power, but these same institutions can also become spaces for resistance and class struggle.