The marxist theory of Bonapartism

Abstract

A concept is the apprehension of essential and constant aspects of a given phenomenon, without claiming to encompass all the historically specific characteristics of each event. For Décio Saes, for example, a concept cannot be an exhaustive copy of a specific phenomenon, but the enunciation of its essential, invariant aspects in scientific terms. Thus, concepts such as fascism, Caesarism, Bonapartism are not theoretically condemned to refer only to the regimes that engendered them. They don't reveal the secrets of certain concrete situations or conjunctures, but rather inform the starting point for such analyses, observing the recurring characteristics not by mere chance, but because they are conditioned by a certain relationship of forces that remains historically. These are relations between social classes in specific, dominant modes of production.