it doesn't, according to Fred Block's essay *The Ruling Class Does Not Rule* (Socialist Review 33, May-June 1997, 6-27)...
Block argues that structural mechanisms shaping the capitalist state operate independently of a politically conscious ruling class...there exists, instead, a tripartite relationship betweem capital, labor, & state managers...the structural position of the latter is 'independent' of both capital & labor and creates its own set of interests... capitalism's ability to rationalize itself is the outcome of conflict between the capitalist class, the working class, and state managers...
Block does not, however, offer evidence to the contrary about the existence of capitalist class consciousness and the relations existing between members of that class and, most directly, the executive of the US political state...nor does he provide evidence that state managers break with the long-run interests of the capitalist class...lastly, Block's acknowledgement that state 'concessions' are the result of working class pressure from below weakens his thesis about the independence of state mangers...how much conflict would exist between them and the capitalists if no inherent class struggle was waged between the capitalists and the workers (who are, after all, the underlying threat to capitalism)...Michael Hoover