Materialist State Theory and the Transnationalization of the Capitalist State

Abstract

Abstract: In contrast to assertions that the capitalist state is either losing control or that it has returned, this article argues that during the last two decades the state itself has been reshaped. To understand the processes that the capitalist state is exposed to it is necessary to conceive of it as a series of form‐specific practices. Which practices form “the state” is not a result of pre‐given institutions but of conflicts and struggles. The capitalist state, separated as it is from the relations of production, must not be made synonymous with the national state. Only as a result of certain relations of force does bourgeois rule acquire the form of the national state. These relations between classes are currently being dissolved by the ruling classes. The capitalist state is being reorganized and is constructing new elements of a transnational network state, whilst the state itself is governed through new techniques—that is, those of governance.