Social classes and Marxist epistemology: Nicos Poulantzas' approach

Abstract

The article analyzes Nicos Poulantzas' approach to classes through the sieve of the theory of research programs in the humanities and social sciences developed by Michael Burawoy on the basis of Imre Lakatos' philosophy of knowledge. More specifically, the aim is to understand the reconciliation of Poulantzas’ approach with the thesis of class struggle as the engine of history - one of the central postulates of the Marxist research program in Michael Burawoy's perspective. In view of this, two fundamental aspects of Poulantzas' theory of classes are examined: the relations between classes and the transition and the response to the problem of the middle classes in Marxism - the expansion, in advanced capitalism, of class positions interposed between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. We conclude that both the specific reformulation of the postulate of the class struggle - in the form of the political class struggle as the motor of history - and the formulation of the concepts of the new petty bourgeoisie and the working class - which confronts the contents of class relations without giving in to rival research programs - are progressive aspects of Poulantzas' approach to classes in relation to the Marxist research program. These aspects, according to Burawoy and Lakatos, are capable of dispelling refutations and advancing the theoretical and empirical content of the program.