ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book lays out the various vantage points to the state and presents a series of inter-connected criticisms. It discusses the relation between the structure of the state and capitalism as an internal relation, and how the structure of the state operates within a series of limits, some of which are more stringent than others. The book describes the relation between the state and capitalist property rights, and also discusses the role of the state in relation to the production of private property in capitalism, including in relation to the ongoing dispossession of small-scale producers. It examines the state in relation to capitalism at a general level and in the context of advanced capitalism. The book explains the state’s pro-worker interventions.
