The The State and social classes in Nicos Poulantzas, Erik Olin Wright and Claus Offe

the class struggle, the structure and state selectivity

Abstract

Studies on social classes are perhaps the least consensual point within Marxist theory. From economics to philosophy, from sociology to political science and the currents that defend a psychoanalytical approach married to Marxism, in short, for all the areas that drink in this theoretical tradition, a reasonable consensus was never reached regarding the category social classes, at most , perhaps to a minimum consensus, that is, that classes are constituted in the sphere of production, not that of the market. Nor does the State category, as the main nucleus of the political power of society, constitute a theoretically peaceful element in its relationship with the classes and in their respective structuring, within historical materialism. In this work, I seek to analyze how Nicos Poulantzas, Erik Olin Wright and Claus Offe, representatives of different Marxist theoretical currents, conceive social classes and their relationship with the State, correlating these categories to other spheres of reality as an analytical resource for problematization of capitalism in contemporary times.

Keywords: Social classes. State. Marxism. Production relations.