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

[Somebody Somebody]

Arguably the classical Marxist regimes of the 20th century aren't the only states that weren't controlled by the property holding classes. Bolivarian Venezuela, for instance, constitutes a *decade long* exception to the rule that the state in capitalist countries is a captive of the bourgeoisie. And if Hugo Chavez is an exceptional figure in this regard, what do we make of the whole array of similar national liberation regimes in the post-colonial period, some of which Chris Doss already mentioned? As an empirical matter, it appears there was every gradation of state ownership of the economy in the Third World in the 20th century. Indeed, the ostensibly Communist regimes themselves demonstrated the entire range of public ownership of the means of production. 
Actually, one of the lessons of the transition to capitalism in the Soviet Union and China, not to mention the industrialization of Meiji Japan, is that far from being merely the control apparatus of the bourgeoisie, the state can be the parent to the emergence of a new capitalist class.