This book will consist of a tightly organized, but thematically wide-ranging, set of interventions in an emerging multi-disciplinary debate on Marxist approaches to the capitalist state. In their most general form, the basic aims of the volume are threefold: (a) to critically examine the state, and its juridico-political practices and institutions, in light of both long-term and immediate concerns; (b) to rethink the conceptual frameworks and theoretical dilemmas of Marxist state theory, with an eye to contemporary struggles, movements, and developments; and (c) to spark renewed interest in state theory within the broad Marxist tradition, demonstrating its explanatory power and the critical purchase of the analytical tools it puts on offer.
This book builds on the recent revival of interest in Marx and Marxism, calling for a renewal and refinement of Marxist state theory. It aims to provoke and encourage new debates and critiques that build on—but also update and extend—the rich tradition of Marxist analyses of the capitalist state, including the well-known debates of the 1970s.