Review
Ralph Miliband, in his theory of how states function to serve the capitalist interest. He puts across that the state in class societies is primarily and inevitably the protector of dominant economic interests, and the real purpose is to ensure their continued dominance. His claims are based on government members’ social origins and personal ties between the ruling class and government members.
Nicos Paulantzas theory adapts a more structural approach, where he claims that the states function usually serve capitalist interests, which can preserve the capitalist mode of production. He also points out that members of the ruling class are the same as those who manage states. Nico Paulantzas, in his criticism, claims that there is an objective relation between the bourgeois class and the state. This eventually states that the state’s functions in a determinate social formation and interest of the dominant class coincide. The participation of the ruling class is not a cause but an effect.
In response to Poulantzas criticism, Miliband advocates that Poulantzas’sPoulantzas’s position does not give room for agency and is too limiting. The individual’s decision is determined by society’s structure and is not based on their free will.
Pareto, Schumpeter and Dahl have different accounts on their interpretations of democracy.
Pareto argued that democracy was an illusion and a ruling class emerged and enriched itself. Pareto’sPareto’s notion puts across that men and women starve and children die young at the bottom of the wealth curve. In the middle of the curve, people are rising and falling. They are rising due to luck or favourable opportunities and falling due to drunken behaviours or sickness. At the very top, we have the elites who control the wealth and power for some time until they are removed from power by a revolution or a democratic process. To him, democracy is a fraud, and human nature is primitive and unyielding. The stronger and smartest people take the largest share of power and wealth while the weak starve and get the least share.
Schumpeter defined democracy as a method by which people elected their representatives in competitive elections for them to carry out the will of the people. He disputed that democracy was a process by which the electorate identified the common good and the politicians carried everything out for them. Schumpeter stated that people’s ignorance meant that the politicians manipulated them because they set the agenda.
For Dahl, democracy simply means rule by the people. He states that a democratic process must make effective participation and equal voting rights for adults who are subject to decision making in society. Democracy should allow the citizens to understand civic issues and allow them to have control over matters that are paramount to decision making. Dahl sees the democratic process as the foundation of equality for all persons. This means that the interests of all people should be given equal consideration in decision making.
Mark Murphy. (2017, February 17). The Miliband–Poulantzas debate on the capitalist state. Social Theory Applied. https://socialtheoryapplied.com/2017/02/17/miliband-poulantzas-debate-capitalist-state/
Joseph Femia. (n.d.). Pareto’sPareto’s concept of demagogic plutocracy. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230379923_5
Paul Broker. (n.d.). Schumpeter’sSchumpeter’s leadership model of democracy. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230290709_2
Michael Bailey and David Braybrooke. (2003, November 28). Robert A. Dahl’sDahl’s philosophy of democracy is exhibited in his essays. Annual Reviews. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.polisci.6.121901.085839