Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism: Conjuncture, politico-historical
In: Historical materialism: research in critical marxist theory, Band 20, Heft 1, S. 267-277
ISSN: 1569-206X
A selection from the Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism on the concept of politico-historical conjuncture is presented. For Ben Brewster and Louis Althusser, the concept of 'conjuncture' is nothing less than 'the central concept of the Marxist science of Politics' (Glossary of For Marx and Reading Capital, 1969 and 1970). It indicates 'the exact balance of forces, [the] state of overdetermination of the contradictions at any given moment to which political tactics must be applied'. Unlike conjuncture in the sense of fluctuation, eminently compatible with various teleological philosophies of history, the concept of conjuncture in its developed form is decisively anti-teleological, as well as firmly opposed to economic or class-reductionism. Social changes, also of a structural type, take place in and through conjunctures with many determinations. As an analytical tool, the concept of conjuncture can expand the capacity to act politically by helping to examine the conditions of a political intervention in their complexity, that is, to trace the displacements and condensations of different sorts of contradictions, and thus open up possibilities for action. Adapted from the source document.