ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasises the centrality of class struggle and sees the state as an aspect of the social relations of production. It outlines that this approach has a long history in Western Marxism and has most recently been articulated under the banner of 'open Marxism'. The chapter discusses the fundamentals of 'open Marxism', drawing particular attention to the concepts of 'class', 'labour' and 'struggle'. It explores how a class struggle theory of the state can be developed from Marx's account of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The chapter highlights how Marx's discussion of the circulation of capital provides a basis for analysing recent developments in the global political economy. The analysis of the capitalist state conceptually presupposes the analysis of capital and of the reproduction of capitalist relations of production, despite the fact that in reality, of course, the state is itself a moment of the process of reproduction.
