State bureaucracy and civil society

Through an analysis of Marx's writings, the author attempts to arrive at an understanding of the relation between state and civil society under capitalist conditions. The development of Marx's thought is traced from his early German writings, much influenced by Hegel, to his later studies of the relationship between state, state bureaucracy and social classes in France and England. Special attention is paid to the way in which a liberal democratic state may be transformed into a bureaucratic, authoritarian one.
Marx's analysis remained incomplete, partly because his emphasis on the autonomy of state and bureaucratic structures mplicitly contradicted some of his more general theoretical statements. especially the base-- superstructure distinction and determination by the economy. The author argues, however, that if we continue Marx's line of reasoning we arrive at a better grasp of the various ways in which state and civil society may be articulated in capitalism.