Description
Book SynopsisIt is often remarked that critical - and especially Marxist - state theory began to lose its central place in the study of comparative politics in the 1980s. Ironically, this shift occurred just as neoliberal policies were transforming the social form and spatial scales of the state, radically restructuring the practices of state economic intervention, and extending the capabilities of the coercive arms of the state. This volume addresses the 'impoverishment of state theory' over the last decades and insists on the continued salience of class analysis to the study of states. The book's title, State Transformations, reflects several central themes in the comparative study of states: the neoliberal restructuring of capitalist states, the changing economic and political architecture of imperialism, and the prospects of a democratic transformation of capitalist states. The essays collected here are intended to honor the memory of Leo Panitch, whose influential body of work has shaped debates on the state, imperialism, and socialism over the past four decades.
Contributors are: Clyde W. Barrow, Caio Bugiato, Frank Deppe, Ruth Felder, Ana Garcia, Sam Gindin, Doug Henwood, Martijn Konings, Colin Leys, Sebnem Oguz, Bryan D. Palmer, Dennis Pilon, Larry Savage, Charles Smith, Michalis Spourdalakis and Hilary Wainwright.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction State TransformationsIntroduction: State Transformations
Greg Albo, Stephen Maher and Alan Zuege
part 1
State Theory and Capitalist Democracy
1 From the Canadian State to the Making of Global Capitalism
Clyde W. Barrow
2 Beyond the Impasse of State Theory
Martijn Konings
3 Working-Class Politics Matters Identity, Class, Parties
Dennis Pilon and Larry Savage
part 2
Imperialist Restructuring and Global Capitalism
4 Globalization as Internationalization of Capital Understanding Imperialism and State Restructuring
Sebnem Oguz
5 The State and Imperialism in International Relations Theory
Ana Garcia and Caio Bugiato
6 Bringing Class Back in The State, the ‘Pink Tide’, and the Case of Argentina
Ruth Felder
part 3
From Neoliberalism to Political Crisis
7 The Rebirth of Nationalism and the Crisis of the European Union
Frank Deppe
8 The UK’s Organic Crisis
Colin Leys
9 The Coronacrisis A Body Blow to the Rotting American State
Doug Henwood
10 The State, Trade Union Freedoms, and the Impasse of Working-Class Power in Canada
Charles Smith
part 4
Transforming Class Politics and the State
11 Transformative Agency from a Time of Revolt to a Time of Pandemic
Hilary Wainwright
12 Class Politics and Strategies for Party Building
Michalis Spourdalakis
13 Notes toward a Plausible Socialism
Sam Gindin
14 Between the State and the Streets A Study in Socialist Sobriety
Bryan D. Palmer
Postscript
Greg Albo, Stephen Maher and Alan Zuege
References
Index
