# Capitalist state > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Capitalist_state > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Capitalist_state.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_state > Source revision: 1319408154 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Concept of the state in a capitalist system This article is about the concept of the [state](/source/Sovereign_state) in a capitalist system. For variants of capitalism based on state-owned business, see [state capitalism](/source/State_capitalism). Part of a series on Capitalism Concepts Austerity Business cycle Capital Capital accumulation Capital markets Company Corporation Competition law Definitions Economic interventionism Economic liberalism Economic liberalization Economic surplus Entrepreneurship Fictitious capital Financial market Fiscal conservatism Free price system Free market Goods and services Investor Invisible hand Visible hand Marginalism Private property Privatization Profit Rent seeking Supply and demand Surplus value Tariff Value Wage labour Systems Anglo-Saxon Authoritarian Corporate Dirigist Free-market Humanistic Laissez-faire Liberal Libertarian Market Mercantilist Mixed Monopoly National Neoliberal Nordic Raw Regulated market Regulatory Rhine Social Political State State-sponsored Welfare Theories American Austrian Chartalism MMT Chicago Classical Institutional Keynesian Neo- New Post- Market monetarism Critique of political economy Critique of work Marxist Monetarist Neoclassical New institutional Supply-side Ideologies Authoritarian Classical liberalism Democratic Dirigisme Eco Gladstonian Humanistic Inclusive Liberal Liberalism Libertarian Nationalist Neo Neoliberalism Objectivism Ordoliberalism Privatism Private Third Way Intellectuals Petty Cantillon Smith Bentham Malthus Say Ricardo Mill Hamilton Bastiat Marshall Pareto Bawerk Weber von Mises Schumpeter Keynes Hayek Rand Coase Stigler Friedman Buchanan Rothbard Sowell Becker Lucas Laffer Block Hoppe Origins Age of Enlightenment Capitalism and Islam Commercial Revolution Feudalism Industrial Revolution Mercantilism Merchant capitalism Primitive accumulation Physiocracy Simple commodity production Development Advanced Consumer Community Corporate Crony Finance Global Illiberal Late Marxist Merchant Progressive Rentier State monopoly Technological Related Anti-capitalism Capitalism in Singapore Capitalist propaganda Capitalist realism Capitalist state Consumerism Crisis theory Criticism of capitalism Critique of political economy Critique of work Cronyism Culture of capitalism Evergreening Exploitation of labour Globalization History History of theory Market economy Periodizations of capitalism Perspectives on capitalism Post-capitalism Speculation Spontaneous order Venture philanthropy Wage slavery Capitalism portal Economics portal v t e Part of a series on Marxism Outline Concepts Philosophy Alienation Dialectical materialism Ethics Historical materialism Ideology Praxis Reification Economic analysis Labour theory of value Law of value Value-form Abstract and concrete labour Socially necessary labour time Use value Exchange value Means of production Mode of production Capitalist Socialist Productive forces Relations of production Commodity (fetishism) Surplus product Surplus value Exploitation Wage labour Capital (accumulation) Critique of political economy Crisis theory Imperialism Reserve army of labour Tendency of the rate of profit to fall Social and political theory Class Bourgeoisie Proletariat Working class Lumpenproletariat Class consciousness False consciousness Classless society State theory State capitalism Withering away of the state Democracy Democratic centralism Dictatorship of the proletariat Radical democracy Soviet democracy Base and superstructure Communist society Cultural hegemony Human nature Immiseration Metabolic rift Private property Social reproduction Theory of history Class struggle Primitive accumulation Proletarian revolution World revolution Schools of thought Foundational Classical Marxism Marxism–Leninism Orthodox Marxism Revisionist Marxism Primary branches Bukharinism Council communism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Left communism Leninism Maoism Socialism with Chinese characteristics Titoism Trotskyism Western Marxism Frankfurt School Humanist Praxis School Structural Libertarian Marxism Autonomism Communization Operaismo Situationism Academic and post-1968 schools Analytical Budapest School Dependency theory Ecological Feminist Neo- Open New Marx Reading Political Post- Regulation school Subaltern Studies Value-criticism World-systems theory Other tendencies Austrian Black radical tradition Eurocommunism Liberal Nkrumaism Fields of study Aesthetics Anthropology Archaeology Criminology Cultural analysis Cultural studies Film theory Geography Historiography International relations Literary criticism Religion Theoretical works Foundational texts Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Theses on Feuerbach The German Ideology The Poverty of Philosophy Wage Labour and Capital The Communist Manifesto The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Grundrisse A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Value, Price and Profit Das Kapital The Civil War in France Critique of the Gotha Programme Anti-Dühring The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy Early 20th century What Is to Be Done? 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Despite their common functions, there are many different sociological characteristics recognized as aspects of capitalist states.[2] The primary functions of the capitalist state are to provide a legal framework and infrastructural framework conducive to [business](/source/Business) enterprise and the [accumulation of capital](/source/Accumulation_of_capital). Different normative theories exist on the necessary and appropriate function of the state in a [capitalist economy](/source/Capitalist_economy), with proponents of *[laissez-faire](/source/Laissez-faire)* favoring a state limited to the provision of [public goods](/source/Public_good_(economics)) and safeguarding private property rights while proponents of [interventionism](/source/Economic_interventionism) stress the importance of regulation, intervention and macroeconomic stabilization for providing a favorable environment for the accumulation of capital and business.[3] Thus, thinkers in the [Marxist](/source/Marxist) tradition often refer to the capitalist state as the [dictatorship of the bourgeoisie](/source/Liberal_democracy#Marxist_criticism).[4] Thinkers in the [instrumental Marxist](/source/Instrumental_Marxism) tradition stress the role of policymakers and political elites sharing a common business or class background, leading to their decisions reflecting their class interest. This is differentiated from more contemporary notions of state capture by specific business interests for the benefit of those specific businesses and not the ruling class or capitalist system as a whole, which is variously referred to as [crony capitalism](/source/Crony_capitalism) or [corporatocracy](/source/Corporatocracy).[5] According to [Dylan John Riley](/source/Dylan_John_Riley), [Nicos Poulantzas](/source/Nicos_Poulantzas) argued that "all capitalist States had the dual task of preventing the political organization of the dominated classes, and of organizing the [dominant class](/source/Ruling_class)".[6] ## See also - [Big government](/source/Big_government) - [Capital accumulation](/source/Capital_accumulation) - [Capitalism](/source/Capitalism) - [Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)](/source/Capitalist_mode_of_production_(Marxist_theory)) - [Communist state](/source/Communist_state) - [Corporatocracy](/source/Corporatocracy) - [Economic interventionism](/source/Economic_interventionism) - [Liberal democracy](/source/Liberal_democracy) - [Patriarchy](/source/Patriarchy) - [Socialist state](/source/Socialist_state) ## References ### Citations 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Recent_theories_of_the_capitalist_State,_1977_1-0)** Jessop, Bob (January 1977). "Recent Theories of the Capitalist State". *Soviet Studies*. 1: 4. pp. 353–373. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Morishima_1976,_1_2-0)** Morishima, Michio (1976). [*The Economic Theory of Modern Society*](https://books.google.com/books?id=aC45AAAAIAAJ). New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 1. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-521-21088-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-21088-7). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** [Yu-Shan Wu](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wu_Yu-shan&action=edit&redlink=1) (1995). *Comparative Economic Transformations: Mainland China, Hungary, the Soviet Union, and Taiwan*. Stanford University Press. p. 8. In laissez-faire capitalism, the state restricts itself to providing public goods and services that the economy cannot generate by itself and to safeguarding private ownership and the smooth operation of the self-regulating market. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Duncan, Graeme (March 1989). *Democracy and the Capitalist state*. Cambridge University Press. p. 85. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780521280624](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780521280624). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Jessop, Bob (1982). *The Capitalist State*. Oxford. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPoulantzas2019Foreword_6-0)** [Poulantzas 2019](#CITEREFPoulantzas2019), Foreword. ### Bibliography - Poulantzas, Nicos (2019). *The Third International and the Problem of Fascism*. Translated by White, Judith. [Verso Books](/source/Verso_Books). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781786635815](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781786635815). ## Further reading [Library resources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library) about **Capitalist state** - [Resources in your library](https://ftl.toolforge.org/cgi-bin/ftl?st=wp&su=Capitalist+state) - [Resources in other libraries](https://ftl.toolforge.org/cgi-bin/ftl?st=wp&su=Capitalist+state&library=0CHOOSE0) - Barak, Gregg (ed.) (1991). [*Crimes by the Capitalist State: An Introduction to State Criminality*](https://books.google.com/books?id=6EPtqOoXVMAC). Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7914-0584-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7914-0584-2). - Duncan, Graeme. [*Democracy and the Capitalist State*](https://books.google.com/books?id=tMk8AAAAIAAJ). New York: Cambridge University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780521280624](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780521280624). - Jessop, Bob (2002). [*The Future of the Capitalist State*](https://books.google.com/books?id=OXCryro7GdEC). Cambridge: Polity Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7456-2272-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7456-2272-0). - Jessop, Bob (1990). [*State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in its Place*](https://books.google.com/books?id=HcxBBhXjAUcC). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-271-00735-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-271-00735-4). - Saville, John (1994). [*The Consolidation of the Capitalist State, 1800-1850*](https://books.google.com/books?id=EOIDAQAAIAAJ). London and Boulder, Colorado: Pluto Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7453-0898-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7453-0898-2). - Szymanski, Albert (1978). [*The Capitalist State and the Politics of Class*](https://books.google.com/books?id=o92DAAAAMAAJ). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Winthrop Publishers. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0876261057](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0876261057). --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Capitalist state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_state) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_state?action=history)). 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