Bukharin's Theory of the Imperialist State

Bukharin's Towards a theory of the imperialist state (1915)was a real milestone in understanding that the epoch of imperialism, above all since the outbreak of the first world war, is also the epoch of state capitalism. This passage is a good example of the level of clarity reached in the pamphlet:

"In total contrast to the state in the epoch of industrial capitalism, the imperialist state is characterized by an extraordinary increase in the complexity of its functions and by an impetuous incursion into the economic life of society. It reveals a tendency to take over the whole productive sphere and the whole sphere of commodity circulation. Intermediate types of mixed enterprises will be replaced by pure state regulation, for in this way the centralization process can advance further. All the members of the ruling classes (or, more accurately, of the ruling class, for finance capitalism gradually eliminates the different subgroups of the ruling classes, uniting them in a single finance-capitalist clique) become shareholders, or partners in a gigantic state-enterprise. From being the preserver and defender of exploitation, the state is transformed into a single, centralized, exploiting organization that is confronted directly by the proletariat, the object of exploitation. In the same way as market prices are determined by the state, the workers are assigned a ration sufficient for the preservation of labour power. A hierarchically constructed bureaucracy fulfils the organizing functions in complete accord with the military authorities, whose significance and power steadily grow. The national economy is absorbed into the state, which is constructed in a military fashion and has at its disposal an enormous, disciplined army and navy. In their struggle the workers must confront all the might of this monstrous apparatus, for their every advance will be aimed directly against the state: the economic and the political struggle cease to be two categories, and the revolt against exploitation will signify a direct revolt against the state organization of the bourgeoisie".

As can be seen from the last lines, it was also here that Bukharin took up Pannekoek's argument from 1912 (also the argument of Marx and Engels after the Commune, but widely forgotten)- that the working class had to smash the bourgeois state rather than try to take it over by its party winning parliamentary elections. Lenin initially disagreed with this, but under the influence of the events in Russia changed his mind completely: the result was The State and Revolution

Any thoughts?

I think this is important to emphasise that state-capitalism is not merely an abberation but a result of trends in international capitalism. Otherwise you can get the false notion that places like the USSR are somehow "worse" than regular Imperialist states, and I think we all know where that leads...

I think the one thing that Bukharin seems to miss is the way that capital increasingly works to incorporate the workers themselves into the state through trade unions and bourgeois workers parties.

he does develop the point about the unions in his book on the 'Economics of the Transformation Period, I think - he talks about the 'nationalisation' of the trade unions