On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:38:33 -0400 Bhaskar Sunkara
<bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com> writes:
> Is Chris' objection simply the intrumentalist view of the state?
> I've
> always found that analysis a bit wanting, but what are the
> alternatives?
> Poulantzas?
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>
>
A few posts back I mentioned Poulantzas. There, I wrote:
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. ____________________________________________________________ Put your loved ones in good hands with quality senior assisted living. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTJkoLMUEDWvr1N2apGzqyLxRWNYW0LPdeQXMFLlXcDdtw1uQNjNtu/