ABSTRACT
Since the very concept of autonomy remains a muddle, some terminological preliminaries must be cleared before substantive questions can be discussed. This is done in Section 2. The subject of Section 3 are theories, mostly of marxist inspiration, which explain the origins of state autonomy. Section 4 offers an analysis, based on the property rights approach, of the consequences of different forms of state for public policy. The possibility that the state would be autonomous under democracy is examined in Section 5, first with regard to the bureaucracy and then more generally.
