The State In Modern Society

Presents a framework through which to understand the relationship between social class and the state from a broadly Marxist perspective. This book focuses on the idea that states represent ruling classes, even though imperfectly, and that the political arena is not independent of economic class structures.

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This book presents a framework through which to understand the relationship between social class and the state from a broadly Marxist perspective. The framework focuses on the idea that states represent ruling classes, even though imperfectly, and that the political arena is not independent of economic class structures. Whereas most works dealing with the relationship between class and state concentrate on single examples and single countries, this book examines in a comparative way an entire set of modern state types in the context of class relationships. Four types of state are analysed: the 'third world' authoritarian state (in several of its forms); the modern liberal or bourgeois state; the fascist or Nazi state; and the Soviet or, more properly, the Stalinist state. In addition, more explicitly focused chapters discuss the connection between the ruling bourgeois class and the modern state, and the ways in which different states deal with ethnic minorities. All theoretical discussions are supported by copious data and many specific examples of particular concepts are cited.
Through trenchant analysis and succinct prose, "The State in Modern Society" admirably fills the need for a book that translates the sometimes jargon-ridden Marxist perspective into language comprehensible to university students and to the educated lay public as well.