Book Review: Bob Jessop, The State: Past, Present, Future
| Author | Chris Pierson |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916676926 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsPolitical Theory |
91
Foucauldian thought, Hamilton defines free-
linking theoretically the problem of freedom to
dom as the ‘combination of my ability to deter-
the question of power, Hamilton returns free-
mine what I will do and my power to do it’ (p.
dom from moral philosophy to critical social
10). Freedom thus depends on power, and
and political inquiry.
Hamilton argues that being free requires the
power to control economic and social institu-
Laurence Piper
tions through the political system, the freedom
(University of the Western Cape)
to choose and influence political representa-
© The Author(s) 2016
tives, the institutional and ideological opportu-
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916676925
nity for groups to agitate against common
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
social obstacles, and the social space for indi-
viduals to resist social convention. Even then,
for the individual, freedom may still include a
The State: Past, Present, Future by Bob
further subjective meaning beyond these con-
Jessop. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016. 303pp.,
ditions for a free society.
£16.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780745633053
While clearly republican in affirming the
centrality of politics to freedom, Hamilton
Bob Jessop has described himself as an ‘ideas-
eschews notions of ‘the people’ or the ‘com-
cruncher’, and he has now been systematically
mon good’, following Machiavelli in charac-
crunching ideas about the state for more than
terising politics as being about conflict
40 years. This book is both a summation of
between social groups. He also places repre-
those decades of work and a defining statement
sentation and the competition of ideas at the
of Jessop’s fully mature view about what we
centre of this agonistic politics, as opposed to
can and cannot say about states, state practices
both the traditional republican emphasis on
and state effects. In Jessop’s extraordinarily
direct participation and...
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