ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the state is connected to the successive phases of the capital circuit, and the state’s role in relation to accumulation. The state must take steps to promote capitalist accumulation in the long-term interests of the capitalist class and especially its economically and politically hegemonic fraction. The normal process of exploitation is not what exploitation is in the eyes of the state; only the excesses of the capitalist system constitute exploitation. The chapter describes the state’s role in relation to tendencies and counter-tendencies towards economic crisis. The main aim of capitalists is to increase their profit by reducing the cost of production, so what happens inside ‘the hidden abode of production’ crucially matters. The state creates markets through its activities that aim to benefit those that are economically weaker or to benefit society at large. The state is connected to every stage in the formation of the crisis.
