Theories of Comparative Political Economy by Chilcote Ronald H.;

Author:Chilcote, Ronald H.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

ISSUES OF STATE THEORY

An interesting point raised by Jessop is that although critics acknowledge that Marx did not systematically develop a theoretical analysis of the state, they also recognized that other classical Marxist writings rarely focus on state power, capital accumulation, and the changing forms of the state (1990: 25). Table 4.5 not only incorporates these aspects but also serves to extend our discussion on contemporary lines of thinking by emphasizing major issues to consider.

Building on classical Marxist thought, Carnoy and Jessop have identified the principal contemporary currents of progressive thought on the state. First, they point to the emphasis in Ralph Miliband (1969) on an instrumentalist view of the state as a means of attacking liberal theories of pluralism and democracy, an approach that did not advance theory on the state because "he actually reproduces the liberal tendency to discuss politics in isolation from its complex articulation with economic forces" (Jessop 1990: 30). Carnoy also introduces the view of William Domhoff that the capitalist class dominates the state with its economic power and state personnel participate in the dominant class.

Second, there is opposition to instrumentalism as represented in the work of Nicos Poulantzas and an emphasis on the structurally determined role of the state and its complex of social relations in which class struggle occurs not only in civil society but also within the state. Carnoy and Jessop both argue that in this formulation it is not clear whether any class actually controls the state apparatus and, furthermore, that Poulantzas vacillates between a state that is completely independent and a state that is dependent on the economic base.

Third, theorists who follow in the Ricardian tradition emphasize how the state intervenes in the economy to influence distribution of income between classes and ensure corporate profit at the expense of wages; here, says Jessop, the approach ignores social relations of production and class struggle in its attention to struggles for income distribution, and the state is seen as a third force capable of intervention or subject to manipulation.

TABLE 4.5 Contemporary Progressive Theories of the State

Carnoy Jessop

State personnel are one and same as those located in higher branches of government who belong to the same class or classes that dominate civil society (Domhoff) State power built on socialization into the ideology of the dominant class, with attention to instrumentalism in an exposé of the mystification of liberal pluralism (Miliband)

Capitalist class dominates state with its overall economic power, withholding capital, for instance State viewed as a complex of social relations, cohesive and relatively autonomous (Poulantzas)

State is instrument of the ruling class (Miliband, in a qualified way) State influence on the distribution of income between classes and state intervention to ensure corporate profits at the expense of wages (neo-Ricardians)

State as autonomous; no class has power to rule through the state in particular instances {exceptional state) (Poulantzas and Althusser) State monopoly capitalism based on the laws of motion of capitalism; the class nature of the state depends on external factors

State theory derived from economic laws

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