>What do "strong nation-states" -- their character, effects of their
>presence, effects of their absence, etc. -- exactly mean _in concrete
>terms, outside the capitalist core_?
And I was also referring to a very elitist view of the world that underpins the strong state - Keynes's well-born technocrats on the National Investment Board, or HCKL's friends in the Chinese CP, planning on behalf of the masses.
Keynes at least had the excuse of writing in 1936 or 1937, when he said kind things about Nazi economic policy. For a self-identified Marxist writing in 1999, it's a little more troubling.
Doug