What are Louis Althusser's Ideological State Apparatuses?
Ideological State Apparatuses, or ISAs, are distinct from the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) which functions primarily through violence. ISAs are institutions like schools, religious organizations, the family, the legal system, and the media. They operate through ideology to secure the reproduction of the relations of production. They inculcate individuals into accepting the existing social order as natural or inevitable, thereby ensuring social stability and the dominance of the ruling class's ideology.
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