Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 9. April 24 1978
Whom does the State Serve?
Whom does the State Serve?
The key role of the state in our society is to maintain "order". It intervenes to pacify conflict situations and to smooth the bumpy path of boom and slump which characterises our economy. In the process the state reveals its class character. The "order" it preserves is the "order" of an economy dominated by monopoly capitalism — an order dictated by Watties, Fletchers, BP, General Motors etc. in a chummy network involving less than 100 key businessmen who control between them the key financial, manufacturing, banking, importing and agricultural companies. It is to protect the broad interests of monopoly that the state exists. The state ensures the continuing existence of the system of exploitation of the majority by the minority.
In times of boom (i.e. high profits) the state is not called on as much as in times of slump (i.e. low profits) when big business needs nursing. The existence of the modern state, with its extensive bureaucracy and wide-ranging powers, is monopoly's medical insurance.