[lbo-talk] The State (Was: Ralph loves the nice plutocrats)

[farmelantj at juno.com]

I ams sure that Wojtek is well aware
that within the Marxist tradition,
there have been those who have been
critical of instrumentalist notions
of the state, most notably, 
Nicos Poulantzas, who developed
a structuralist analysis of the state
which emphasized its relative autonomy,
and its functioning on behalf of the
long term interests of the capitalist
class as a whole precisely because of
its relative independence from the capitalist
class.

In Marx's writings one can find both
instrumentalist analyses of the state
and analyses of the state which emphasize
its relative autonomy in relation to
social classes.  Marx seemed to think
that the state was likely to be most
autonomous in countries where contending
social classes were relatively evenly
balanced in strength.  For example, the
absolute monarchies of the seventeenth
century arose in countries where the
feudal aristocracies and the rising
bourgeoisies were evenly matched and
so the monarchs acted as mediators between
the two classes.  Marx also seemed to perceive
a similar development in Bismarck's Germany
where the bourgeoisie was evenly matched
with the rising proletariat.

Jim F.

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] The State (Was: Ralph loves the nice plutocrats)
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:53:53 -0400

So the idea that state is by definition run by the propertied class is but a
Left wing myth that is demonstrably false and does not even deserve to be
called "vulgar Marxism" :)

Since it is clear, from historical record, that the state sometimes is
controlled by the propertied class and sometimes it is not or even acts
against the propertied class - a far more interesting approach, imho, is to
investigate the conditions facilitating each of the outcomes instead
shutting down any discussion by declaring by definition that state is eveil
tool of the propertied class.

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