Chris Dillow — The Capitalist State

In bemoaning the coalition's lack of evidence-based policy, Simon Wren-Lewis inadvertently draws our attention to a difference between centrists and Marxists.

We Marxists are not surprised that policy-making should be uninformed by reason, simply because the function of the state is not so much to act as a Platonic philosopher-king disinterestedly aiming to maximize a social welfare function, but rather to advance the interests of capital.....

In these senses, it could be that this government is - in effect - unThatcherite, insofar as it is not promoting the interests of the rich as well as she did.

Herein, though, lies a rather embarrassing question for us Marxists. If we concede that this is the case, what does it tell us? Does it tell us the coalition is so stupid that it's not acting even in capitalists' interests, let alone the public's? Or does it instead tell us that the (cruder) Marxian conceptions of the state are mistaken, and that the state doesn't always promote capitalists' interests? I walk away muttering about the relative autonomy of the state.

Stumbling and Mumbling
The Capitalist State
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle (UK)

I think the answer lies in austerity being a long-term strategy, as is liquidation of malinvestment. Yes, the wealthy lose for a time, but imposition of austerity as economic policy shakes out weaker hands and consolidates capital in strong hands for future expansion. The longer it lasts the greater the consolidation upward and the more inequality rises.