Education and the State in Capitalist Society: Aspects of the Sociology of Nicos Poulantzas

H. Svi Shapiro reviews some of the major works of the French Marxist sociologist,Nicos Poulantzas. Classes in Contemporary Capitalism, Political Power and Social Classes, and a number of articles dealing with Western capitalist societies are examined to determine their implications for the educational process. Poulantzas produced an extensive and significant body of work on the class structure of modern capitalist societies,and the role of the state, ideology, and political practice. Because of the difficulty of his style, much of this work has remained largely unread. Nevertheless, his writings represent an important contribution to a fully developed radical critique of schools and education under capitalism.