As for my third comment, this is pretty much obvious from Engels' Origins (just read that if you haven't done so already!) so I wouldn't necessarily say that it's been a subject of intense discussion within the academic literature or that you have to go read lots of secondary material to understand what Engels is getting it, but Draper also gives a good summary in the first volume of his enormous work, Draper, Hal, Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution (Monthly Review Press, 1977), especially chapter 11. Avineri's book doesn't engage specifically with the origins of the state but the final chapter does provide an interesting discussion of the links between the concept of the "aufhebung" of the state and Marx's account of alienation. It's Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge, 1968)
...but you could also just read Cohen's follow-up book, Cohen, G. A. History, Labour and Freedom (Oxford, 1988), which is a response to some of the criticisms of the original, and the source of the response I outlined in my post about the relations of production being about effective power and not judicial relations. It can also be read on its own though.
I'm glad I was of help! When I referred to whether it's possible to distinguish between base and superstructure being one of the key debates I was referring to this article: Lukes, Steven, “Can the Base be Distinguished from the Superstructure?â€, in Miller, David and Larry Siedentop (eds), The Nature of Political Theory (Oxford, 1983). The article itself is directed towards Cohen, G. A. Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence (Oxford, 1978), which is really *the* most important formulation of Marx's theory of history to emerge in the past few decades and is still very much at the centre of debates in spite of its age and the various challenges that have been posed against it. If you want to get to grips with the debates and historical materialism more generally you should read it whilst retaining a critical attitude
I really thought your response here was dead on! http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.p...22&postcount=5 I was wondering, though, if I could bother you for some citations. Thanks.
