Democracy and the Capitalist State

This book examines one of the key issues in the analysis of the capitalist state: its relationship with democracy.

Graeme Duncan (Edited by)

9780521280624, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 March 1989

336 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

One of the key issues in the analysis of the capitalist state is its relationship with democracy. To what extent can a capitalist state be democratised? Where and how do democratic institutions intervene in the management and control of capitalism? Has the emergence of democracy changed the composition of the state? These questions lead inevitably to the basic issue of the interconnections between economics and politics, economy and polity, with which this volume is concerned. This wide-ranging and eclectic collection, combining theoretical and empirical material, and containing contributions from several leading authorities on the modern state, will be of value for teachers and students of political science, sociology and political economy, as well as appealing to historians and philosophers interested in the nature of the state.

Note on contributors
1. Introduction Graeme Duncan
Part I. Theorising the State: 2. Do we need a theory of the state? C. B. Macpherson
3. The fall and rise of the state in international politics Steve Smith
Part II. Classics and Grand Theories: 4. Republicanism, liberalism and capitalism: a defence of parliamentarianism Bernard Crick
5. Marx and the state Ralph Miliband
6. Mill, Marx and the state Graeme Duncan
7. Max Weber and the capitalist state Tom Bottomore
8. The state and legitimation: the work of Jurgen Habermas Philip K. Lawrence
9. Fabian socialism, democracy and the state John Callaghan
Part III. Capital and Labour: 10. State workers: class position and collective action Peter Fairbrother
11. Controlling interests: technology, state control and democracy John Street
12. Is there a corporatist theory of the state? Alan Cawson
13. Political organisation and economic policy Paul Boreham, Stewart Clegg and Geoff Dow
14. Industrial democracy and the capitalist state April Carter
15. A defence of the welfare state Graeme Duncan
Index.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Political structure & processes [JPH], Political science & theory [JPA]