The essay tackles the intertwining of State and capital as powers that dominate modernity, locating on a global scale right from the start. This intertwining intersects inevitably the history of empire, which, rather than just being the precedent of the State, represents a composite form of layered sovereignties and multifaceted juridical spaces. The concept of the State that emerges from the essay moves away from the broadly meant Weberian conception, which is prevailing in contemporary literature. In contrast with the Weberian (...) definition, indeed, the territoriality of the State is unsettled and altered both by the swaying of its borders and by the emergence of new territorial formations inside and across the borders. The global view on the State complicates its relationship with the nation and the idea of the monopoly of the legislative production and legitimate physical strength. The result is a much more fragmented and movable image of the history of modern State. (shrink)

First delivered as a lecture course at the University of Padua by one of Italy’s most brilliant, and certainly its most controversial, Leninists, The Factory of Strategy is concerned to read Lenin in terms of contemporary Marxist exigencies, especially in advanced industrial nations. Divided unequally into five parts, it deals with: the internal dynamism of Lenin’s thought; the question of the organization of the Soviets; methodology, via Lenin’s reading of Hegel; the abolition of the state, via State and Revolution; and (...) a critical reading of Lenin’s attack on German Marxists. Throughout, the work is inspired by two convictions: that Lenin offers the most adequate methodology for revolution, and that his thought must be restructured in terms of the changed situation of the contemporary world. (shrink)

Macchina -- La macchin[a] a vapore : il tecnicismo umano e l'espansione macchinale -- Andrew Ure e Samuel Butler : dalla filosofia delle manifatture alla distruzione delle macchine --Karl Marx : la macchina utensile e il sistema di fabbrica -- Ernst Kapp : il cavo elettrico e la proiezione organica -- Ernst Jünger e Friedrich Georg Jünger : la macchina da guerra : la mobilitazione totale e il consumo dell'essere -- Martin Heidegger : la macchina da miniera : il (...) disvelamento e l'impianto -- Arnlod Gehlen : la macchina cibernetica : su carenza e azione -- Günther Anders : la bomba : su vergogna e apparato -- Alan Turing : il computer : su calcolo e gioco dell'imitazione -- Considerazioni finali. (shrink)