ABSTRACT
Two of the best-known state theorists in the Marxist tradition are Bob Jessop and Joachim Hirsch. Their reading of dialectics, and consequently of the state, runs contrary to the readings offered by Open Marxists. A critical dialectical theory that continually questions, which deciphers appearances as social, cannot but ask why does this happen in capitalism and what could be the meaning of wealth in a non-capitalist society. The negation of the subordination in the totality is the dialectical element within the Marxian notion of dialectical materialism. Negative dialectics is the dialectics of our misfitting, 'the negative restlessness of misfitting' that unfolds in 'the power of No'. The chapter shows that Open Marxism's analysis and criticism of structuralism has succeeded in shedding light on the potential social implications that exist in the negative dialectics tradition. Jessop does not take into consideration the notion of the spellbound character of capitalism that has been emphasized in the negative dialectics approach.
