ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the main debates on 'the state', in relation to capital, integration, citizenship and class struggle. According to Bottomore, the capitalist class is currently world-wide dominant economically, politically and culturally. In some countries such as Britain, during the late 1970s and 1980s the more prosperous workers, as well as a considerable part of the middle class, became as much or more concerned about inflation, interest rates and levels of personal taxation as about the welfare state or the expansion of public ownership. During the 1970s, the debate on the state was crucial in theoretical and political terms across north-western Europe, and its implications are useful as a context for current immigration issues. In relation to immigration issues during the Welfare State, Painter, from the regulation perspective, focuses on a critique of the discrimination that 'black people' and women suffered in terms of welfare.
