Characteristics and changing nature of the state in capitalist and socialist economies and advanced industrial and developing societies

From Marxist perspective the states in these countries can be considered as instrument of capitalist class
From Emmanuel Wallenstein's point of view, these are core countries.
Idea of laissez faire state Also described as “night watchman “ state by Robert Nozick.
From elitist perspective, C wright mills Says these are led by power elites. Robert dahl use the pluralist perspective to suggest that the states can be called as polyarchies/deformed polyarchies
The parties are pragmatic and institutionalized. They have internal democracies as well.

Nature of state in capitalist countries are shaped by the changing requirements of capitalism itself.
Started as laisez faire states on the ideas of locke, Adam Smith and Malthus, Ricardo
Laissez Faire Changed to welfare state to protect capital arm from socialist revolution
Welfare state based on the ideas of Rawls, Dworkin, Keynes, Galbraith
Dominated till 1970s. Then started rolling back of state in the form of reagenism and thatcherism
Now they swing between social liberalism and neo liberalism

with the fall of soviet union, most of these adopted capitalism as the economic ideology.
Advanced industrial economies is not a homogenpus idea as east European economies still continues to follow socialist mode of economy
Scandinavian countries continue to follow welfare state model
Since 2008 financial crisis these countries are facing economic and political crisis with the rise of neo-rightism, anti refugee movement , Brexit
Even in liberal world there is rise of Authoritarian leaders like victor Orban, Putin, Erdogan, trump
Liberalism is being rolled back and states are following the protectionist and nationalist policies

Socialist economies are based on the common ownership over the means of production
Based on the ideas of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao
From each according to his ability to each according to his need
The state‘s prime focus was to provide perfect equality and freedom from basic needs and exploitation
Ultimate aim of revolution is withering away of state as the view state as an instrument of the Bourgeoisie
In the states dictatorship of proletariat remained far-fetched idea and they became dictatorship of Communist parties. This gave rise to totalitarian regimes

Communist states started collapsing and replaced by democratic states after the fall of USSR which Huntington described as third wave of democracy
Collapse of economy as seen in Venezuela and Greece due to excessive welfare policies
The economy of even so called Communist states like Russia and China is based on capitalism

Countries of the global south that were once colonies.
Wide variation from middle east to Latin america in their socio-economic and political systems
due to globalization the societies in these state is witnessing conflict between and western liberal and Asian values
Hamza Alavi- overdeveloped state
Political development approach- prismatic societies by FW Riggs . Riggs says these states suffer from “development trap”
soft states by Gunnar Myrdal
In the words of Huntington, these states are suffering from development decay.
Acc to world systems theory of these are linked to the world through division of labour( Emmanuel Wallenstein). Says these can be identified as peripheral(Kenya,Tanzania) and semi peripheral(India, Indonesia) states (AG frank,Samir amin) controlled by bourgeoisie of core countries.
With the exception of India, most lost autonomy and became client regimes
AG Frank and Samir Amin say these states suffer from development of underdevelopment
Most of the countries of developing world have been forced to adopt new liberal economic model as part of SAP
These are under neo colonialism, data colonialism
These are particularly affected by terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism due to increasing identity consciousness
The states are particularly affected by climate change and large-scale intra and inter-migration of climate refugees. These are finding it tough to balance development and climate change

These are first to be affected by industrial revolution
These were colonial states who used their colonies as means for raw material and cheap labour to establish industries at home
Established institutions like UN, WB, IMF, WTO to further their economic interest
Can be called as global North comprising of G7, OECD
according to Marxist perspective the drain of wealth is continuing
Increasing economic inequality with the rise in GDP - ideas of Thomas Piketty
Changing nature

Till the end of Cold War these were divided into two blocks capital list and socialist
After the collapse of USSR the countries adopted western model of politics and economy. Most of these are developing countries despite having industrial base
Since 2001 there is declining hegemony of west marked by the rise of rest
2008 crisis further reduced their hegemony
Centre of gravity shifted shifted from G7 to G20 and from Atlantic to Pacific
Rise of Neo right, Neo fascist movements in western Europe and USA (America first,Brexit)
Suffering from economic crisis, migrant crisis, refugee crisis, transnational terrorism and so called Islam a phobia

General conclusion- Thus, the nature of state is changing fast with the change in the emerging world order.

World moving from state concentric billiards ball model to society concentric cobweb model.
Trans national actors- also called as asymmetrical actors

Reports by Freedom house on assessing the performance of democratic institutions across the world. ( Addl info- Larry Diamond calls the phenomena of declining democracy as “democracy slump.”)
Work of Amnesty International

Facebook’s Cambridge analytics influencing elections in USA.
clientalist regimes in the third world
instrumentalists within Marxists give dependency theory. The core (west) through the use of MNCs like Amazon,Facebook,Google has made the periphery (East) dependent on the core countries.
Also these MNCs have been used by the west to promote the western thought and culture in the non western societies leading to culture and identity consciousness (clash of civilizations by SP Huntington)

Class Notes 4 You