generality definition
generality of the state means that any ruling bloc operating inside the representative-democratic system has to frame its interests as universal reason through which the class antagonism inherent to the capitalist mode of production is then controlled (Haug 1991, 98; Rehmann 2013a, 33). Hall (1992a, 179–187) explains how a “general interest” of this kind is obtained. A general election, for instance, can be described as a process by which citizens demonstrate their general approval of a private interest of some political force. At the end of the general election, the private interest of the winning political force is elevated above society as the new “general interest”. Bob Jessop (1982, 17) describes this same phenomenon by writing that ‘the conquest of state power presupposes the successful representation of a class interest as the general interest’.
generality of an analytical claim means that its logical form is devoid of specific references to particular instances, but this emphatically does not mean that the relations and characteristics that it instrumentally posits have the same epistemic status as a generally valid empirical law. Keeping these two kinds of claim separate, would, for example, clear up the muddled thinking that characterizes the often-heard claim that ‘interpretive’ scholarship cannot ‘generalize’: if this means that interpretive work focused on specific contexts of social meaning cannot produce empirical generalizations, than the statement is quite true, but if this means that such interpretive work cannot utilize or contribute to the formation of analytical ideal-types, then the statement is quite false (Jackson 2011:153).