ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the doctrine that the state is not a neutral expression of the public good, but rather a mystification concealing the dominance of the oppressive class. Demonstrating that the state is not neutral is primarily a matter of exhibiting conflict, and more specifically, the ideological struggle, as the single real thing that is happening. The strong version of the ideological theory of the state can be most economically collected from the Communist Manifesto. At the level of the substance of the social order, then, ideological societies are monistic in senses in which modern societies are not, and hence the parallel between "socialism" and "capitalism" is invalid. In an ideological social order, everyone is necessarily involved in the single enterprise of transforming society, while "capitalism" in this context refers to a social order whose character depends on two elements: a state imposing laws, and a population making its own choices about how it lives.
