The role of the state in recent years has demonstrated the continued need for the insights of Marxist state theory. Yet this should not blind us to the reasons why the latter became discredited. This article seeks to rescue the key insights of Marxist state theory from the clutches of its structuralist legacy. It discusses contributions that successfully avoided the conceptual problems of structuralism and proposes that we re-energise state theory by building on these and proceeding to branch out and engage related fields of scholarship.
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