ABSTRACT
The post-war period witnessed a massive expansion of the state apparatus and state activity in all Western societies. This raises a series of intriguing questions: Does this expansion represent an accretion of power by the state in capitalist societies? Or is it a sign of a weak state unable to resist societal demands? In whose interests does the ACS ‘rule’? Is the state best conceived as a ‘capitalist’ state or an ‘autonomous’ state? These are somewhat intimidating questions. Perhaps by engaging with some of the existing literature which has analysed these issues we can begin to sketch in the outlines of some ‘answers’. Not only will this involve confronting different theoretical approaches to the state but also focusing upon ‘… the state’s authoritative actions and inactions, the public policies that are and are not adopted’ (Nordlinger, 1981, p.2): what the state does or fails to do.
