Abstract

If neoliberalism names a mode of « governance by debt », the task which is addressed here, starting from Althusser’s article on Ideology and State Ideological Apparatuses is that of the formation of « subjects » within the framework of a social structure where paramount importance is given to « liberty ». The mobile hypothesis adopted here involves the reformulation of the question of subjectivity in terms not only of the interpellation of the subject by the policeman, as in the Althusserian scenario, but also in terms of its interpellation through advertising. Without postulating a suppression or replacement of the earlier apparatus, the challenge addressed here is to try to envisage how State coercion is redoubled by Market conditioning. If the “classical” mode of interpellation couples the Forbidden to the logic of guilt, what is to be examined in the case of this new apparatus is the coupling of hedonistic permissiveness and victimization, to ensure that that consumers, all by themselves, will walk to credit. In considering these issues, we shall draw upon two contemporary readers of Althusser’s text, Slavoj Žižek et Judith Butler.