Capital and the state in South Africa

This, and the following article, develop different critiques of the article on ‘Class Struggle and the Periodisation of the State in South Africa’ in ReviewNo.7. The argument developed here is that the article failed toprovide an adequate basis on which an explanation of the unique features of the South African state (its successful promotion of industrialisation, without any incorporation of the majority of the working class) could be constructed because of the particular interpretation given to theoretical concepts like ‘fractions’, ‘hegemony’ and ‘form of state’. The author argues that these concepts need to be reformulated so that changes in hegemony refer to a change in the very nature of capitalism itself rather than simply to some re‐arrangement in the power bloc.