State Transformations

It 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.

Greg Albo teaches political economy at the Department of Political Science, York University, Toronto. He is currently co-editor of the Socialist Register. He is also on the editorial boards of Studies in Political Economy, Relay, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, Canadian Dimension, The Bullet and Historical Materialism (England). Albo is co-editor of A Different Kind of State: Popular Power and Democratic Administration and author of numerous articles in journals such as Studies in Political Economy, Socialist Register, Canadian Dimension, and Monthly Review.

Alan Zuege is co-editor of several books, including Value and the World Economic Today (2003) and The Globalization Decade (2006).

Publication date: July 5, 2022

Acknowledgements
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