ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author relates the state to the three attributes of the commodity in capitalism (use-value, exchange value, and value). He discusses the state in relation to the nature of the peculiar commodity (labour power) in part by using the concept of what he calls labour circuit. By supporting capitalist commodity relations, the state supports some capitals better than other capitals. The author outlines some implications of Marx’s ideas about the state and value relations for a future world beyond value and thus briefly connect Marx’s Capital 1 to the 20th-century discussion on the ability of the post-capitalist state to construct ‘socialism in one country’. The large-scale commodity exchange that is characteristic of capitalism and the fact that a commodity’s exchange values are ‘constantly changing with time and place’ require a society-level coordination in time-space. Labour power is a peculiar commodity unlike other animate and inanimate commodities.
