Those who view the state as simply external to capitalism tend to refer to the "state" in the singular-and often to "capital" in the singular as well. This way of putting it may make sense when providing an account of capitalism at the most abstract level, with the state providing a level playing field on which different capitals compete on equal terms. But the actually existing capitalist system is made up of many states58 and many capitals.59
But even those who see states as existing in the plural, as does Ellen Wood, often conclude that they serve the interests of capital in general, not of particular capitalists based within them. "The essential role of the state in capitalism", she argues:
is not to serve as an instrument of appropriation, or a form of "politically constituted property", but rather as a means of creating and sustaining the conditions of accumulation at arms length, maintaining the social, legal and administrative order necessary for accumulation. 60
As against these views, there are those whose analyses start from the classic theories of imperialism, with their language about the state "merging" with capital, of "state monopoly capitalism", or simply of "state capitalism", and their view of the clashes between states as an expression of international competition of the capitals operating within them.
A bowdlerised version of this view became part of the orthodoxy of Stalinised Marxism in the years from the 1 930s to the 1970s, known for short as "stamocap". A more serious attempt to describe the world system as composed of state capitals in the decades after the Second World War was made by Mike Kidron. 61 In his account individual states and individual capitals became completely congruent with each other: every state acted at the behest of a set of nationally based capitals, and every significant capital was incorporated in a particular state. Any exceptions, for Kidron, were a hangover from the past, relics which would disappear with the further development of the system.
A parallel attempt to see the world in terms of states representing capitals was developed in the early 1970s in debates between German Marxists.62 Claudia von Braunmuhl, for instance, wrote:
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Understanding the System: Marx and Beyond