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

[Somebody Somebody]

One question to consider is this: say a state nationalizes a large swath of the economy but maintains some basic property rights and doesn't entirely expropriate the bourgeoisie. Is that state *still* the executive organ of the property holding classes? Because this is precisely the sort of situation which prevailed for instance in Egypt under Nasser, in Libya until a few years ago, in Nyerere's Tanzania, and so on. 
It's hard to argue that having the state nationalize the commanding heights of the economy is in the interest of the property holding classes. It isn't as if these countries were under eminent threat of socialist revolution, and the political elites were simply making last ditch concessions to the proletariat. On the contrary, the political classes were *leading* the economic changes.