The Revolutionary Road to State Capitalism

Abstract

We saw in Chapter 2 that one route to state capitalism consists of the state acquiring private capitalist industries by legal purchase, on the basis of existing private property laws. An alternative route to state capitalism consists of the revolutionary expropriation of the established ruling and propertied classes, frequently without compensation. In countries which experience this type of state capitalist revolution, the land is generally taken over by the peasants, while the mines, factories, railways and other capitalist enterprises come under the control of the revolutionary state. Since the state capitalist revolution gives them control of means of production which function as capital, the revolutionary leaders form the embryo of a new capitalist class — a state capitalist class.