{"id":13470,"date":"2026-09-06T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/?p=13470"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T02:59:31","slug":"francis-cosgriff-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/2026\/09\/06\/francis-cosgriff-3-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Cosgriff – 3.2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1. What is a Repressive State Apparatus? Why does Althusser call it \u201crepressive\u201d? Can we explain his choice of words here. Give an example.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Repressive State Apparatus is any of several tools used by the ruling class to enforce the status quo. These are most often institutions, like the police and court systems, that force compliance and repress the potential for change through violence and the threat of violence. For example, a large protest may be met with the physical force of the military or a militarized police force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Let\u2019s do the same for the\u00a0Ideological State Apparatuses. <\/em>What are they, how do they seem to work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideological State Apparatuses are systems that reinforce the status quo through subtle pressures and conditioning. Schools, religion, and the media often work to indoctrinate people \u2013 particularly young people \u2013 into compliant worldviews, and coerce them into obedience through conditioning and social pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. How are the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses different from each other? What is the difference between the two?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repressive State Apparatuses use violence\/the threat of violence to control people. This may be intimidating them into obedience or forcefully eliminating a threat to the status quo (often via imprisonment or punishment.) Ideological State Apparatuses work in a less overt manor to cultivate compliant behaviors and outlooks by leveraging social tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Post an example of ideology.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United State military spends an significant amount of money to affect their cultural positioning. Famously, they will only grant access or services to help produce films that depict the US military in a positive light. They also pay professional sports leagues to insert patriotic events and exercises into their events, like the singing of “God Bless America” and flag displays. (https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/11\/05\/454834662\/pentagon-paid-sports-teams-millions-for-paid-patriotism-events<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an example of the Ideological State Apparatus at work, creating a positive association and fondness for the military that bolsters support for it and makes questioning it more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. What is a Repressive State Apparatus? Why does Althusser call it \u201crepressive\u201d? Can we explain his choice of words here. Give an example. A Repressive State Apparatus is any of several tools used by the ruling class to enforce the status quo. These are most often institutions, like the police and court systems, that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-3-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13472,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions\/13472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}