Marx's Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State: Theoretical Considerations

Description

Marx's Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State examines the capitalist state in the abstract, and as it exists in advanced capitalism and peripheral capitalism, illustrating the ideas with evidence from the North and the South. The volume unpacks the capitalist state's functions in relation to commodity relations, private property, and the crisis-ridden production of (surplus) value as a part of the capital circuit (M-C-M′). It also examines state's political and geographical forms. It argues that no matter how autonomous it is, the state cannot meet the pressing needs of the masses significantly and sustainably. This is not because of so-called capitalist constraints, but because the state is inherently capitalist. Each chapter begins with Capital volume 1. And each chapter ends with theoretical/practical implications of the ideas which taken together counter existing state theory's focus on state autonomy and reforms and point to the necessity for the masses to establish a new transitional democratic state. But the book goes 'beyond' Marx too, as it deploys the combined Marxism of 19th and 20th centuries. Marx's Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State will interest scholars researching state-society/economy relations. It is suitable for university students as well as established scholars in sociology, political science, heterodox economics, human geography, and international development. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of figures Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1 Waning and waxing of intellectual interest in the state 2 Existing state theorizing 3 The state, Capital volume 1, and the Lenin legacy 4 What is to be done theoretically? A need for a dialectical approach 5 An overview of the argument 2 A critical review of Marxist state theory post Marx 1 The capitalist class agency perspective 2 The capitalist class structure perspective – the political moment 3 The capitalist class structure perspective – the economic moment 4 The state actors agency perspective 5 The working-class agency perspective 6 Structural-strategic approach 7 Existing state theory: a critique of its intellectual context and political implications 8 Conclusion 3 The state and class relations 1 The state and economic relations 2 From economic relations to class relations (and their gender and spatial nature) 3 The state and class struggle 4 The state and the dominant class as two arms of the class structure 5 Class society and state functions 6 Forms of class relation and forms of class-state: some historical examples 7 Multiple state forms within given class forms 8 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 4 The state’s internal relation with capitalism and capitalists 1 An internal relation between the state and the capitalist class 2 Limits on the state’s functioning 3 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 5 The state, capitalist commodity relations, and labour power 1 Use-value, exchange value, and the state 2 Value relations and the state 3 The state, the ‘peculiar commodity’, and the labour circuit 4 The state and commodity fetishism 5 The state and counter-tendencies to equality and freedom in commodity relations 6 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 6 The state and capitalist property relations 1 Forms of private property 2 State-mediated class differentiation as a basis for capitalist private property 3 State-assisted extra-economic ‘production’ of capitalist private property 4 Capitalism, theft, and anti-theft laws 5 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 7 The state, and capitalist production, exploitation, accumulation, and crisis 1 The state and the ‘M-C(MP+. . .’ phase of the capital circuit (the sphere of money and means of production) 2 The state and the ‘C ( . . . + LP)’ phase of capital circuit (the sphere of labour power) 3 The state and the ‘P’ phase of capital circuit (the sphere of commodity production) 4 The state and the ‘C′-M′’ phase of capital circuit (the sphere of realization) 5 The state and capitalist accumulation 6 The state and tendencies/counter-tendencies towards the crisis of accumulation 7 Summary, and theoretical and political implications Appendix: Studying the state-crisis relation 8 The state and the agency of capitalists and state actors 1 Structure and agency 2 Capitalists’ agency 3 State actors’ agency 4 Limits to state function in support of capitalist interests 5 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 9 The state and the agency of the working class 1 State’s pro-worker interventions and the labour circuit (C-M-C′-R-C) 2 Driving forces behind state action in favour of workers (and small-scale producers) 3 Limits to state’s pro-worker interventions, and why? 4 Bringing it all together: broader theoretical reflections on the state and forms of working-class struggle 5 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 10 State forms: Geographic and bureaucratic 1 Geographical forms of the state and capitalist accumulation 2 Bureaucratic state form and political domination by the state 3 Summary, and theoretical and political implications 11 Capitalism, imperialism, and the state in the global periphery 1 Disarticulated development of productive forces in the periphery 2 Peripheral social formation dominated by ‘backward’ capitalism 3 Imperialism retarding development of productive forces in the periphery 4 Class basis of the peripheral state, and peripheral state functions and form 5 The state, exploited classes, and class struggle from below in the periphery 6 Coercive nature of the peripheral state’s democratic form 7 Class contradictions of development and threat to peripheral state’s legitimacy 8 Summary, and theoretical and political implications Bibliography Index