Month: January 2023

The State does not lead to its abolition right away. The revolution of the proletariat instead of abolishing the State, as an anarchist suggests, results in it being taken over. Lenin, citing Engels, says, ‘the proletariat seizes state power and turns the means of production into state property to begin with.’92 The state now is in the hands… Continue reading ’Withering Away’ of the State

We have discussed Engels’s view on the origin and nature of the state earlier. Engels in his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State treats the State as a product of irreconcilable class differences arising out of emergence of private property at a particular stage in historical evolution. The State as a public power is there… Continue reading State as an Instrument for the Exploitation of the Oppressed Class

As Andrew Vincent remarks, Marxian theory tends towards political economy and treats the economic activity as the primary concern. The rest of the human activity is taken as part of epiphenomenona or result of certain antecedent conditions.89 Accordingly, central to the Marxian understanding of society is the differentiation between infrastructure or base and superstructure. Marxian theory gives primacy to the economic structure… Continue reading Base-Superstructure relationship

State as executive committee of the dominant class From the writings of Marx, two streams or accounts of class-state relationship emerge: (i) Communist manifesto’s executive committee view and (ii) Eighteenth Brumaire’s relative autonomy view. The first conceives the state as dependent on society/class relations and the second with a degree of autonomy from classes in society. The first view… Continue reading Two Accounts of the Class-State Relationship

It is generally said that Marx did not develop a coherent or systematic theory of the State82 per se and it is difficult to acquire any clear unitary theory of the State.83 While this is true, it is not that Marx did not touch upon the relationship between class and the State. The following references and writings… Continue reading Orthodox Marxian Perspective

In our discussion on the Marxian (Class) theory of origin of the State, we have seen that the Marxian conception of state is rooted in the understanding that the State is an instrument in the hands of the propertied class of society. The State originated at a particular time in historical evolution and is linked… Continue reading Marxian (Class) Theory of Nature and Functions of the State

In our discussion on the Marxian (Class) theory of origin of the State, we have seen that the Marxian conception of state is rooted in the understanding that the State is an instrument in the hands of the propertied class of society. The State originated at a particular time in historical evolution and is linked… Continue reading Marxian (Class) Theory of Nature and Functions of the State

As a reaction to the growing thickness of the state as a welfare flag- bearer and interventionist mechanism in the economic sphere, a new stream of critique emerged. This is led by the neo-liberals or the Libertarians, chiefly amongst them are Friedrich A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, Isaiah Berlin and Robert Nozick. Their main opposition to the… Continue reading Neo-Liberals or Libertarians: Theorists of the Thin State

Starting from Mill and Green in the nineteenth century, positive liberalism has its advocates in Hobhouse, Tawney, Laski and MacIver in the twentieth century. Some of the other equally significant contributors to positive liberal concept include J. M. Keynes, J. K. Galbraith, C. B. Macpherson, John Rawls, J. W. Chapman, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen.… Continue reading Other Positive Liberals: Theorists of the Thick State

R. M. MacIver is a sociologist who looked at the State from the sociological point of view. He differentiates between society and the State as representing two different spheres of human activities. Society is given primacy both in terms of its priority and sphere of human interests that it contains—cultural, economic, emotional, political, religious, social, etc.… Continue reading R. M. MacIver