ABSTRACT
The crucial role of the state in the regulation of economic and social life, and thus in the creation, maintenance and alteration of spatial structures, has only recently been appreciated by geographers (Cox, 1980; Johnston, 1979; 1981a; in press; Burnett and Taylor, 1981). Empirical realisation has been associated with theoretical speculation concerning the nature of the state, as geographers seek to understand the why and where of state activity (Dear and Clark, 1978; 1981; Dear, 1981). Incorporation of the political element is necessary, it is argued, for a full appreciation of the forces structuring the geography of late capitalist SOCletles. 1
