Between subject and structure. A rereading of a classic polemic on the capitalist State

Abstract

 This article examines some of the principal themes in the debate between Ralph Miliband and Nicos Poulantzas in the 1970s. I argue that their theoretical and methodological conflicts were principally a product of ontological and epistemological differences. This analysis goes beyond the usual commentaries on their debate, which tend to see it as an argument between a structuralist and instrumentalist view of the capitalist State. Finally, I end with a call to renew the debate, but now with new tools. We need to question those modern principles that govern the discussion of how the subject, or the structure of social reality, is determined.