1.The Repressive State Apparatus is made up of the military, law enforcement, the court system, and the correctional facilities.Althusser describes it as “repressive” because it uses force and punishment rather than persuasion. This shows how these systems oppress dissent, limit freedoms, and uphold the ruling class.Which I find very interesting.

2.Ideological State Apparatuses are institutions that influence people’s thoughts and uphold the current social order without using violence.Which is the exact opposite from repressive state apparatus.

3.One of the main distinctions between Repressive State Apparatuses and Ideological State Apparatuses is that RSAs mainly rely on physical force and violence to uphold social order, while ISAs focus on influencing people’s beliefs and actions through ideology, typically utilizing institutions such as schools, media, and religion. It is important to note that what may work for some individuals within these systems may not necessarily be effective for the majority.

4.

1. Repressive State Apparatus: The Repressive State apparatus, or RSA, is a concept developed by Louis Althusser that describes the mechanism by which the government exerts power and controls its citizens. The main source of the Repressive state apparatus is Fear. Examples of RSAs are Police, Courts, and Prisons. RSAs enforce obedience through direct repression, often through physical means. It is known as a Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) because its primary objective is to preserve social order and safeguard the ruling class’s interests through repression, which includes the use of force, coercion, and the threat of punishment.

2. Ideological State Apparatus: Ideological state apparatus (ISA) refers to institutions and systems in society that casually reinforce the dominant ideology and sustain the ruling class’s power by influence rather than direct force. The main source of ISA is ideologies raised in our society. Schools, media, church, and family are all examples of institutions that impart norms and beliefs that are consistent with the dominant ideology, causing people to accept their place in society. It is known as an Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) because its principal job is to operate via ideology—the set of ideas, values, beliefs, and conventions that determine how people perceive the world. Instead of using force or coercion, ISAs subtly influence people to accept and internalize the governing class’s dominant worldview.

3. The primary difference between the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) and the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) is how they maintain control and enforce the dominant class’s authority. RSAs, such as the police and courts, use coercion, force, and direct repression to maintain social control. Their power is manifested through legislation, punishment, and physical force, suppressing dissent and maintaining order by violently intervening when the status quo is challenged.

ISAs, like schools, churches, media, and cultural institutions, rely on ideology and subtle influence to function. They influence people’s beliefs, attitudes, and worldviews, causing them to internalize and adopt the dominant ideology without using physical force. ISAs work indirectly by instilling concepts that cause people to willingly comply with social standards, such as respect for authority or confidence in meritocracy. In essence, RSAs mandate compliance by direct control, but ISAs foster compliance through cultural and ideological conditioning.

4.

The image illustrates the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) since it shows law enforcement agents exercising their authority to maintain control during a protest or demonstration. This is consistent with Louis Althusser’s concept of RSAs, which include institutions such as the police, military, and court system that uphold order through coercion, force, or the threat of punishment. RSAs interfere directly to repress challenges to the state’s authority or the ruling class, employing physical force as needed, as portrayed in the image. In short, RSAs rely on repression, which involves utilizing visible, coercive measures to retain societal control and secure legal conformity.

1. Repressive State Apparatus includes the government-controlled organizations such as the military, police and the courts, established to set order and control the public by violence or threats for violence. Althusser calls is “repressive” because these institutions, use force or threat of force as a way of repression, to make people follow the rules laws or social values. For example, if someone commits a crime, the police can arrest them, and the court can punish them. I can try and explain his choice of words by claiming that Althusser tried to emphasize the use of force in order to put people in place if they don’t follow the rules. As long as they do, there is no repression. We can argue that “repressive” may sound too aggressive but at is core it is true. We fear (or should fear) the result of our action if they are illegall.
2. according Althusser, Ideological State Apparatuses are establishments and organizations  that help maintain the main ideology in the society and prevent change to the status quo. This includes school, places of worship, family and the media. They work by providing nonviolent and educational access to the mainstream ideology ideas and believes.
3. Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses are different from each other mainly by the way they aim to control the people. State Apparatuses believes in using active force and fear and Ideological Apparatuses uses influence and more behind the scenes, nonviolent ways to promote its ideas. Additionally, the goal of State Apparatuses is to control and keep things in order while ideological Apparatuses tries to convince people and normalize the mainstream ideology.
4. My example is for ideological apparatuses and it is the music video by Taylor Swift for her song “You Have To Calm Down”. https://youtu.be/Dkk9gvTmCXY?si=JxSYWtpQhJRTqcZk. The song, that was released in 2019, and currently has 351 million views, includes a strong statement against the anti-gay culture in America under the Trump administration and aims to rightfully normalize the liberal agenda where everyone deserves equal rights. The title of the song “you have to calm down” together with other lyrics from the song such as “Why are you mad? When you could be GLAAD? (You could be GLAAD) Sunshine on the street at the parade, But you would rather be in the dark ages, Making that sign, must’ve taken all night” encourage people to drop hate and old times ideas and accept gay people as they are. The video includes many mainstream celebrities who are part of the LGBTQ+ along side LGBTQ+ activist and celebrities to show the public that is nothing wrong with being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

1. An RSA refers to institutions like the government, police, military, and judiciary that enforce order through direct coercion or repression.
2. ISAs are institutions that spread the dominant ideology and encourage people to accept it willingly. Examples: News, Media, Churches, Schools

1. Repressive state apparatus is organization that enforces control through force for example the army or the police. Althusser calls them repressive because these kind of organizations use their physically power to force you to stop something. For example the police use their force and power to stop people from vandalizing at a protest.
2. Ideological state apparatus are organizations like schools, the media and religious beliefs that influences people. They influence people by changing their perspectives on certain things to maintain control.
3. The difference between repressive and ideological state apparatus is that repressive state uses physical force and power to control while Ideological state influences through ideology.
4. https://youtu.be/BjZo5EIRZZ4 in the movie Fury the military soldiers uses violence to maintain control during their time at war and follows the governments orders.

1. A Repressive State Apparatus is when you are controlled through the fear of enforcement, which includes things such as the police, courts and prison. Althusser calls it repressive because the enforcement restrains the amount of freedom and choices that people can actually make within their lives. You don’t really have a choice that you can make when the threat of enforcement exists should you fail to comply with authority. An example of this would be someone seeing a sign on a bus that says “Assaulting MTA New York City Transit personnel is a felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison”. This person would then fear even the idea of attacking a MTA staff since they wouldn’t want to go to prison for 7 years.
2. The Ideological State Apparatuses are the natural thoughts and ideas that you are exposed to on a daily basis that you want to emulate in order to live a life that is deemed “normal”, which maintains the status quo. The way that it works is that multiple options are presented within many different aspects of life (politics, advertising, entertainment, etc) in order to give people the feeling that their choices matter and will greatly affect their position within their life, however, it turns out that these choices are simply an illusion that doesn’t change much within a person’s life within the grand scheme of things and ultimately keeps them within the status quo that has been established by the authority.
3. The difference between Ideological and Repressive State Apparatuses is that Ideological State Apparatuses are the ideas and thoughts within society that maintain status quo through people wanting to follow them naturally (since most people just want to live out their lives and feel “normal”) while the Repressive State Apparatuses are the fields of enforcement that come out when people aren’t following the status quo (while also being around to show to everyone what happens to those who do rebel against the authority).
4. The example that I have posted is a No Trespassing sign that mentions that those who do will be subjected to arrest. I feel that this is an example of a Repressive Ideological Apparatus, since it shows the threat of enforcement via the police should you not comply with the authority of that property.

1. Repressive State Apparatus is when punishment starts to play a role and by that is when you break a rule or the law you go to prison.  I quote “ You have two choices: you can accept authority and discipline or if you don’t accept it when the repressive apparatus begins to take away your corporeal freedom, detention or prison. Of course this is not a real choice but this lesson is preparing for the rest of your life in which you’ll continue to have no real choice .” This is saying that if you don’t accept authority that your freedom would be taken away , end up in prison and even detention.

2. Ideological State Apparatus are the law/ rule makers that make the rules that we follow growing up and the ones we follow on a daily basis I would say. I quote “ Ideological apparatuses do most of the work so that the police and courts only need to step in when they fail to put people in their place. Ideological state Apparatuses prevent change to the status quo and include schools,politics and the mass media.” 

3. Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses are different from each other and maybe ways. Repressive plays a part when it comes down to people disobeying the law. Ideological are the ones that follow the rules . Here is an example of Ideological,” Ideological state apparatus because they are mandatory,”No other ideological state apparatus has the obligatory audience of the totality of children in the capitalist social formation, eight hours a day for five or six days.-Althusser” An example of Repressive apparatus begins to take away your corporeal freedom, detention or prison. Of course this is not a real choice but this lesson is preparing you for the rest of your life in which you’ll continue to have no real choice.”

4.Ideological State Apparatuses shape our beliefs and values without using force. These include things like schools and media.

“In school you are taught to follow a strictly regimented schedule seven or eight hours of lessons broken up by an hour of leisure: always the same everyday. You are taught to submit to authority, to obey, not to speak out of turn, to share your pencils, to clean up after yourself and to raise your hand if you wish to speak.”

1. The Repressive state Apparatus are institutions put in place that acts in disciplinary ways to get people to act and believe in ways that they believe are in line where these actions are performed through forces or the threat of a force. Althusser calls it repressive because it forces upon someone and doesn’t give them the choice to go against the ideas being put against them. An example of this is the police and the law, where not following the status quo results in repression of freedom through jail time.
2. Ideological State Apparatus is similar to Repressive however it goes through maintain discipline in non forceful ways . An example of this is teachers in school that discipline students. Schools are one of the institutions responsible for controlling the behaviors and beliefs of a person at a young age when their most impressionable. Schools allow students to learn the status quo from their teachers and as a result, understand the world much easier under the supervision of a trusted official than if they were to just be let into the world unsupervised, with the chance of forming dangerous values.
3. The difference between Repressive and Ideological state apparatus is that that they are demonstrated. For instance, Repressive takes on a head on approach where people can visibly see the forces that regulate ideas. As mentioned earlier, policing and laws use their powers to force people into their values and punish them for deterring from them. Alternatively, Ideological isn’t as visible seen as is done in a sort of subconscious way. The example of teachers mentioned earlier helps prove this point. Teachers demonstrate to their students ways to act and to think. Although they don’t directly force them to, they influence their students to pick up on these values. The values are subconsciously put into the students brain and they become more in line with the status quo. This also happens in other institutions such as churches which speak on beliefs and pass them on to their followers without the our of force or conversive means.
4. https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY?si=jBgjiQ6BbS6JjDU- – This is America by Childish Gambino is a good example of ideology because of the idea that it presents through both its lyrics and music video. It demonstrates the division in America that causes turmoil within America where sides are fighting each other. It displays repressive apparatuses where people of different values use violence to get their way and demonstrates the errors of systems that use this violent forces. A heavy topic in the music is about the systematic racism that exist in America that is carried out by these repressive states of power. Although it is several years old, many of the issues in the music video still hold true and are deeply debated and challenged.

1. The Repressive State Apparatus includes institutions like the police, military, courts, and prisons that use force or authority to keep society organized and controlled. Althusser calls it “repressive” because these institutions enforce rules and norms through direct methods like punishment and physical force. The word “repressive” shows how these institutions help maintain control and prevent challenges to the current system. For example, during a protest, the police work to make sure things don’t get too chaotic. If necessary, they might use force to manage the crowd or arrest people breaking the law. This approach helps maintain social order by directly addressing any problems or disruptions

2. Ideological State Apparatuses are places like schools, media outlets, and religious institutions that help shape our beliefs and values without using force. They work by influencing how we think and feel about the world around us. Instead of using physical power, these institutions teach us what’s important and guide our understanding of society through things like education and media. For example, schools are a great example of this. They don’t just teach us subjects like math and science, they also help us learn about important social values. Schools often stress the importance of being punctual, working hard, and following rules, which are all values that fit into the larger framework of how society operates. So, these institutions play a key role in reinforcing the ideas and norms that support the way things are organized in our world.

3. The main difference between Repressive State Apparatuses and Ideological State Apparatuses is how they keep society under control. Repressive State Apparatuses use direct methods like force and authority to manage problems right away. For example, the police or military step in during a crisis and use their power to handle the situation. On the other hand, Ideological State Apparatuses work in a more subtle way. They influence how we think and feel about the world through things like schools, media, and religious organizations. Instead of using force, they shape our values and beliefs over time. For instance, schools not only teach subjects like math but also important social values such as working hard and following rules. So, while Repressive State Apparatuses deals with immediate problems and maintain order through direct actions, Ideological State Apparatuses focuses on shaping our long term beliefs and attitudes.

4. In many schools, there’s a strong emphasis on doing well on tests, earning good grades, and winning awards. Students are often told that their success is mainly about how hard they work and compete against others. The main idea is that personal effort and impressive achievements are the keys to succeeding in life. (Ideological State Apparatuses)