ABSTRACT
The proponents of the theory that modern states are still fundamentally capitalist base their account of the nature and purpose of the state either upon the systematic constraints imposed upon the political system by a capitalist economy. During the 1950s and 1960s the debates over the nature of advanced industrial societies were primarily dominated by discussions of this 'post-capitalist' thesis. The debates over the nature of class, the corporation and the state in post-classical capitalism have not, therefore, been limited to a simple opposition between Marxism and evolutionary theories of industrial society. For the theories of 'post-capitalist' society, the work-force was becoming increasingly integrated and 'middle class'. Capitalist crisis was conceived to be prevented by the establishment of a regulated 'mixed economy' and rising affluence. The consensus model of industrial society is equivalent to the extreme 'post-capitalist' thesis, representing modern societies as integrated, orderly and efficient in the pursuit of industrial growth.
