PARTY GOVERNMENT AND THE CLASS INTERESTS OF CAPITAL CONFLICT OVER THE STEEL INDUSTRY,

State theory typically ignores inter-party conflict in securing the class interests of capital in favour of general propositions concerning the state and the logic of accumulation. Such theory must be supplemented by investigation of the specific characteristics of political parties, and their different capacities for the recognition and advancement of the class interests of capital. The example of UK steel nationalisation is used to show how the Labour Party, in certain circumstances, is better able than the Conservative Party to formulate policies which rise above the special interests of fractions of capital to that of the class as a whole