La economía política cultural: un campo emergente para el análisis de las transformaciones contemporáneas del Estado capitalista

Abstract

Objective/Context: This article proposes methodological and conceptual alternatives to address the transformations of the capitalist State in a global context from a Marxist point of view. Methodology: First, we review some theoretical contributions of Nikos Poulantzas and their importance within the debates on State formation and internationalization processes. Subsequently, we expose the central elements of the Strategic-Relational Approach (RSA) proposed by Jessop to understand the strategic selectivities that operate within the State, with an emphasis on selectivities of a discursive nature. Conclusions: As an alternative field for the study of discursive selectivities, we present Cultural Political Economy (CPE) as a proposal that, in theoretical and methodological terms, can provide elements for the analysis of political and economic imaginaries, as well as their role in the global reproduction of hegemony and social change. Originality: We address the validity of an emerging field of trans-disciplinary studies to analyze the State in global capitalism, which, despite its possibilities, has little literature in Spanish. Likewise, its importance is highlighted for overpassing “methodological nationalism” and analyzing the interaction of national and international scales in the transformation of State projects. Finally, emphasis is placed on the gaps that persist both in empirical and theoretical terms regarding the modifications that neoliberal globalization has meant for dependent or peripheral capitalist States.

Keywords

• cultural political economy
• capitalist state
• globalization
• critical discourse analysis
• neoliberalism