Power as practical material belief

an alternative reading to Marx's conception of power

Abstract

This essay examines the notion of power in Marx's thought, contrasting it with post-structuralist readings, particularly Foucault's reflections. Beyond interpretations that reduce Marx's vision of power to class struggle or the role of the State, the author argues that, from a dialectical point of view, power can only be approached as a social relationship. If in Foucault's vision of power power is present everywhere, erecting itself as an all-encompassing force from which it is impossible to escape, Marx understands it as a system of "practical, material and social belief", linked to the very movement and antagonistic character of a given Mode of Production. In this way, Marx's thought is not constrained by the limitations of a notion that grants power a status of insurmountability. Finally, this essay argues that Marx's political theory cannot be separated from economic analysis, since the latter is directed towards life processes and concrete social dynamics, the source from which conflicts and power dynamics arise in a given society