Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State
By István Mészáros
Edited by John Bellamy Foster
978-1-58367-949-4 / 512 pages /$34
Reviewed by Seth Sandronsky, for Counterpunch
The late István Mészáros analyzes political theories from the ancient Greek philosophers forward in Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State, ed. and introduction, John Bellamy Foster (Monthly Review Press, 2022), 482 pp. The author’s premise is that the state and capitalism dovetail to exploit people and Mother Nature for profit, a contradiction humanity must overcome to build a sustainable society.
This is a systemic dilemma pushing humanity and the ecology to the brink. Transcending capitalism means transcendence of the state with people actively involved, a premise that Mészáros develops at a level of abstraction some readers might find challenging.
My advice is to stick with it. I think the effort will reap intellectual and practical rewards.
Mészáros’ book consists of three parts, plus Appendices. In Beyond Leviathan, the author meticulously questions the assumptions and conclusions of political theorists from Aristotle to Plato, Hegel, Hobbes, Kant, Locke and Rousseau.
Part One is “From Relative to Absolute Limits: Historical Anachronism of the State.” A central theme is the role of the state in the suppression of labor, from pre-capitalist societies, e.g., slave (master) and feudal (lord), to capitalism (boss).
Accordingly, since the Industrial Revolution, labor suppression under the rule of capital and its state has shaped waged and unwaged work, human activity in and out of the household. In other words, class and gender oppression are tied up with the enforcement function of the state to create and reproduce social conditions that shift an economic surplus away from the bottom and middle to an elite.
Thus we have a capitalist-imperialist world market and political economy.
Mészáros interrogates the political theories that have accompanied the development of capitalism-imperialism.
The surface of this social structure, however, stands in stark contrast to its reliance on coercion and compulsion. This double-edged relationship operates with (weaponry) and without (ideology).
Mészáros writes thusly. “The materially grounded common denominator of all antagonistic political formations, from the most ancient empire-building attempts to the present-day “democratic systems,” is the class-exploitative production and extraction of surplus labor.”
Part Two is “The Mountain We Must Conquer: Reflections on the State.” The author opens it with a series of provocative questions such as why are states unable to solve the most pressing problems facing everyday people.
Worsening climate crisis and warfare come to mind. Adopting a Marxian, that is a materialist, view, he disentangles “the mountain before us” as threats to planetary survivability bear down on humanity.
Two major theoretical works on the state that Mészáros turns his attention to are Hobbes’ The Leviathan and Hegel’s The Philosophy of Right. Mészáros in part compares their writings on the state with those of Marx.
Famously, Marx called for the withering away of the state. Its role is central to reproducing the social conditions for the infinite drive of capitalism to grow, though the Earth’s resources are finite.
Given this dialectical link between our planet and the world market, nation-states lack a global state to manage conflicts, as a unipolar political economy changes to a multipolar one. On a related note, this global power shift has spawned Israel’s Palestinian Holocaust since October 7, 2023.
The United Nations’ impotence to stop the civilian slaughter in Gaza and Lebanon reveals the absence of a means to halt this genocide that Uncle Sam funds and supports. This is a current example of the steep climb people who support peace and social justice must take.
Mészáros devotes Appendix 4 to the issue of the state withering away. On a related note, the author explores the limits of “political decision-making“ in his critique of achieving human liberation.
Overcoming the obstacle of the state and capitalism harming labor and Nature involves comprehension of the for-profit system’s historical obsolescence. The rising threat to all life is pressing down as pandemics, war and weather events become a new normal.
“Ancient and Modern Utopias” is the third and last part of Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State. Sir Thomas More’s Utopia is one of the works that Mészáros considers in part because it highlights the drive of a social order whose rise foretells the absurd inequality and instability of the system now.
Breaking through the boundaries of the state-capital-labor system of extraction and exploitation requires new ways of organizing, mobilizing and thinking. To this end, Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State is an important book.
Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State, by István Mészáros. Buy now at Monthly Review Press.
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