characteristic of the state’ (Carnoy 1984: 50). This somewhat onedimensional
conception of state power (the state as the expression of the
repressive might of the ruling class) is most closely associated with
Lenin’s The State and Revolution (1917 [1968]), but is also appealed to
in the work of Engels (see, for instance, 1844 [1975]: 205–7; 1884
[1978]: 340; cf. van den Berg 1988: 30–1). Its functionalism – the
attempt to explain something by appeal to its consequences – is well
captured by Hal Draper: