Capital and the State: West German Neo-Orthodox State Theory

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Abstract
The neo-orthodox, or political-economic approach to a theory of the state, which developed in Berlin and West Germany between 1970 and 1975, provides one of the major theoretical paradigms for the analysis of the capitalist state. It derives a theoretical conception of the form, function, and limits of the bourgeois state from Marx's analysis of capital. The paper surveys several major contributions to neo-orthodox state theory made by Müller and Neusüss, Altvater, and Blanke, Jurgens, and Kastendieck. It then provides a critique of these neo-orthodox theories, and compares them with Poulantzas' more familiar class-political formulation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the present controversy and offers some suggestions for possible new ways to approach the analysis of the state in capitalist societies.

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