ABSTRACT
The previous chapter concluded by discussing the ways in which the nation-state plays a key, although modified, role under the conditions and challenges of globalisation. This chapter continues on this theme by examining the changing institutional forms and functions of the capitalist state. It does this by drawing on a régulation approach to political economy and the state. The term ‘political economy’ is frequently used to discuss the interrelationships that exist between economic, social, and political processes, which are forged through power relations as ‘moving parts’ (see Peet and Thrift 1989). The régulation approach has a neo-Marxist take on political economy that stresses the ways in which capitalism is managed through state, economy and society ‘interactions’ (Florida and Jonas 1991). Box 4.1 introduces capitalism and summarises the differences between Marxism, structural Marxism and neo-Marxism approaches to political economy. This chapter, therefore, suggests that state institutional forms and functions can be explored in relation to the ways in which states are embedded or ‘integrated’ into different economic, social and political processes.
