| | The debate over the nature of the state in capitalist society has been both lengthy and broad. The portion of this debate with which we are here concerned has taken place within a broadly Marxian or neo-Marxian framework. In what has usually been seen as the 'classical' Marxist theory the state is characterised as an 'instrument' in the hands of a ruling class and used in opposition to other social classes. In addition to this 'classical' position there are two main Marxist positions. The first of these, associated with the work of Althusser, emphasises the distinctive position of the state (and politics) within the 'structure' of a social formation and thus the possibility of a study of this 'region' (the 'political' ). It is clearly an arena of competition, yet in Althusser's formulation appears separate from economic competition in the marketplace. The second, or 'relational' theory of the state, associated with such writers as Corrigan et al. (and less clearly Poulantzas and Therbom), focuses on an image of the state as the social and political concentration or crystallisation of the various class and intra-class struggles in society. For these writers the state is one of the relations of capitalist society which are constitutive of class relations. |
