The limitations of the Transnationalised State thesis in neo-Gramscian IR: the grounds for a Strategic-Relational Approach

Abstract

This article addresses recent critical literature in International Relations, on the transnationalisation of the state. It identifies a trend within neo-Gramscian thinking on the matter that awards excessive credence to the agential nature of hegemony with regards to the transnational state, class formation and alliances. In order to correct the imbalance implicit in the inherent instrumentalism of such accounts, a dialectical approach is suggested. This entails re-examining the Gramscian notion of the historic bloc on the one hand, and the employment of the Strategic-Relational Approach (SRA) of Jessop on the other. As a consequence, both challenge the phenomena of transnationalisation, indicating the need for alternative conceptualisations in the debates on the state, globalisation, and hegemony. The article finds that structural readings of the historic bloc, and the SRA initiatives reveal the limitations of the current literature in conventional neo-Gramscian thinking, in addition to the need for further developing readings on the state and hegemony.