Entre imaginário e dominação: ideologia e direito como “aparelho de Estado” no pensamento de Louis Althusser

This article intends to analyze Louis Althusser’s thesis about ideology and law as an “State apparatus”. In order to do so, firstly, it focuses on general aspects of Althusserian theory that support his conception of the State as an instrument of class domination. Then, it analyzes the Althusserian theory of the “ideological State apparatuses” to, from there, approach the law as a “State apparatus”. Finaly, highlighting the complexity that permeates the Althusserian conception of ideology, the article seeks to demonstrate that the theory of “ideological State apparatuses” (AIE) remains influential, especially due to maintaining that the reproduction of social order does not result from its imposition by a repressive power, but from the existence of an “invisible State” that would manifest itself as a “form of unconscious thought” of the subjects