Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each institution by whether Althusser treats it as a REPRESSIVE or an IDEOLOGICAL state apparatus.
Groups: Repressive · Ideological
- The courts
- The police
- The school system
- The family
- The army
- The press and broadcasting
Hints
- One group works primarily by force, the other primarily by meaning.
- Althusser calls the school the dominant ideological apparatus of the modern period.
Show the answer
Repressive: The police, The army, The courts
Ideological: The school system, The family, The press and broadcasting
Why
Althusser is careful that the difference is one of primary means, not of purity: the school disciplines and the army also teaches. His claim about the school being the dominant apparatus of modern societies is exactly the kind of proposition that can be argued against with evidence, which is a virtue in a theory of ideology.
Practise Ideology
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