>How about _state_ as in the entire power structure
I know people do that, but it seems to me like the use of "ego" in American ego psychology - the effect is to enlarge the category so much that it loses its analytical usefulness. To me, "state" refers to the agency or agencies with official powers of coercion. Market discipline is a kind of coercion, but a very different kind from one enforced ultimately at gunpoint.
Doug