Re: [OPE] The state under capitalism

On 2010-08-13 21:47, Paul Cockshott wrote:
> I can see that there is something to what you say Dave, but the structrural constraints do not explain the rather different policies
> followed by the Swedish Social Democrats and Atlee and Gottwald in the late 40s.
>

Following on my analogy of structural constraints as probabilistic
barriers, one can think of how the chemical equivalent: Certain
transitions are possible but made highly improbable unless there is a
catalyst to lower the energy barrier.

Similarly the political organizations that can be thought of catalysts
if they have the strategic and organizational capacities to overcome or
circumvent the barrier. The Swedish social-democratic movement probably
had the organizational capacity but certainly not the strategic.

The only example that I can think of is Chile. There the same structural
mechanism kicked in under Allende, with investment strikes, economic in
downturn etc., but the organizations seemed to have had the capacities
to not back down under such pressures. Perhaps even Project Cybersyn
helped the leadership to see that it was possible to organize a section
of the economy when the capitalist sector was tanking. They may have
overcome the structural constraints but were ultimately met with brute
force.

//Dave Z
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Received on Sat Aug 14 03:22:08 2010