This session of our Theory Series will introduce attendees to the role of the state in reproducing capitalist social relations and as a terrain of socialist struggle. We will discuss theories of the state both within and outside the Marxist tradition. What constitutes a state? Does liberation require that we exercise state power or abolish it? Is the liberal democratic state a “neutral” entity, its power available to any group or class able to organize a majority? Or, are state operations inherently skewed towards capitalist interests, and if so, why and to what extent? We will discuss both corporate influence on the state through lobbying, campaign finance, and cultural connections between state officials and the rich; and a more structural relationship between state action and capitalist investment. Finally, we will approach one of the Left’s most hotly contested, and important, questions: what should socialists do when in control of the state?

Core Reading:

• Vivek Chibber - “Capitalism and the State” from The ABCs of Capitalism

Advanced Further Reading:

• V. I. Lenin - “Class Society and the State” from The State and Revolution

• Tony Chamas - “Why the ‘Ruling Class’ Need Not Rule: Nicos Poulantzas and the Marxist Theory of the State”

• Ruth Wilson Gilmore & Craig Gilmore - “Restating the Obvious”