View source for State capitalism

{{short description|Ownership or control of an economy by a government}}
{{About|a variant of [[capitalism]]|the concept of the functions of the state under capitalism|Capitalist state|}}
{{Capitalism sidebar|systems}}
{{economic systems sidebar|by ideology}}
'''State capitalism''' is an [[economic system]] in which the [[State (polity)|state]] undertakes [[business]] and [[Commerce|commercial]] economic activity and where the [[means of production]] are [[nationalization|nationalized]] as [[state-owned enterprises]] (including the processes of [[capital accumulation]], [[centralized]] [[management]] and [[wage labor]]). The definition can also include the state dominance of [[corporatized]] government agencies (agencies organized using [[business management|business-management]] practices) or of [[public companies]] (such as publicly listed [[corporation]]s) in which the state has controlling shares.<ref>{{cite book|last= Williams|first= Raymond|url= https://archive.org/details/keywordsvocabula00willrich|title= Keywords: A Vocabulary of Society|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 1985|isbn= 9780195204698|edition= revised|series= Oxford paperbacks|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/keywordsvocabula00willrich/page/52 52]|chapter=Capitalism|quote= A new phrase, state-capitalism, has been widely used in mC20, with precedents from eC20, to describe forms of state ownership in which the original conditions of the definition – centralized ownership of the means of production, leading to a system of wage-labour – have not really changed.|access-date=26 June 2020|orig-year=1976|url-access= registration|via=Google Books}}</ref> The term has been used as a pejorative by Marxists, liberals and neoliberals. However, it has also served as a programmatic label for [[Developmentalism | developmentalist]] and [[Neomercantilism | neomercantilist]] projects in reaction to
imperialism.<ref>{{cite web |last=Weber |first=Isabella |date=February 2023 |title=State Capitalism, Imperialism, and China: Bringing History Back In |url=https://peri.umass.edu/publication/state-capitalism-imperialism-and-china-bringing-history-back-in/ |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] |access-date=15 November 2025}}</ref>

A state-capitalist country is one where the government controls the economy and essentially acts as a single huge [[corporation]], extracting [[surplus value]] from the workforce in order to invest it in further production.<ref name="fpif.org22">Compare: {{cite web|last= Dossani|first= Sameer|date= 10 February 2009|title= Chomsky: Understanding the Crisis — Markets, the State and Hypocrisy|url=http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5860|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091012102636/http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5860|archive-date= 12 October 2009|access-date= 1 December 2023 |website= Foreign Policy In Focus|publisher= Institute for Policy Studies | quote = Noam Chomsky: [...] From roughly 1950 until the early 1970s there was a period of unprecedented economic growth and egalitarian economic growth. [...]  Many economists called it the golden age of modern capitalism — they should call it state capitalism because government spending was a major engine of growth and development.}}</ref> This designation applies regardless of the political aims of the state, even if the state is nominally [[socialist]].<ref name="binns22">{{cite journal|last= Binns|first= Peter|date=March 1986|title=State Capitalism<!--|collection= Marxism in the Modern World-->|url= http://www.marxists.de/statecap/binns/statecap.htm|journal= Education for Socialists|publisher= Socialist Party of Great Britain|issue=1|access-date=26 June 2020|via= Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> Some scholars argue that the [[economy of the Soviet Union]] and of the [[Eastern Bloc]] countries modeled after it, including [[Maoist China]], were state capitalist systems, and Eastern and Western commentators alike assert that the current [[Economy of China|economies of China]] and [[Economy of Singapore|Singapore]] also constitute a mixture of state-capitalism with [[private capitalism]].<ref>Howard, M. C.; King, J. E. (2001). [http://www.hetsa.org.au/pdf/34-A-08.pdf "'State Capitalism' in the Soviet Union"]. ''History of Economics Review''. '''34''' (1): 110–126. {{doi|10.1080/10370196.2001.11733360}}. Retrieved 26 June 2020 via – History of Economic Thought Society of Australia.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last= Epstein|first= Gady|date=31 August 2010|title=The Winners And Losers In Chinese Capitalism|newspaper= Forbes|url= https://www.forbes.com/sites/gadyepstein/2010/08/31/the-winners-and-losers-in-chinese-capitalism/|access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=21 January 2012|title=The rise of state capitalism|newspaper=The Economist|url= https://www.economist.com/leaders/2012/01/21/the-rise-of-state-capitalism|access-date= 26 June 2020|issn= 0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Ferguson|first=Niall|date=9 February 2012|title=We're All State Capitalists Now|newspaper= Foreign Policy|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/09/were-all-state-capitalists-now/|access-date=28 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Araújo|first1=Heriberto|last2=Cardenal|first2=Juan Pablo|date=1 June 2013|title=China's Economic Empire|newspaper=The New York Times|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/opinion/sunday/chinas-economic-empire.html|access-date= 26 June 2020|issn= 0362-4331}}</ref>

The label "state capitalism" is used by various authors in reference to a private capitalist economy controlled by a state, i.e. a private economy that is subject to [[economic planning]] and [[Economic interventionism|interventionism]]. It has also been used to describe the [[Military socialism|controlled economies]] of the [[Great Powers]] during [[World War I]] (1914–1918).<ref name="Blackwell 19912">Coleman, Janet; Conolly, Willam; Miller, David; Ryan, Alan, eds. (1991). ''The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought'' (reprinted ed.). Wifey/Blackwell Publishing. {{ISBN|9780631179443}}</ref> Alternatively, state capitalism may refer to an economic system where the means of production are privately owned, but the state has considerable control over the allocation of [[Credit (finance)|credit]] and [[Investment (macroeconomics)|investment]].<ref>Bakunin, Mikhail (1971) [1873]. [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1873/statism-anarchy.htm ''Statism and Anarchy'']. [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1873/statism-anarchy.htm#s1 "Critique of the Marxist Theory of the State"]. In Dolgoff, Sam, ed. ''Bakunin on Anarchy: Selected Works by the Activist-Founder of World Anarchism''. London: George Allen and Unwin. {{ISBN|978-0394717838}}.</ref> This was the case with Western European countries during the [[post-war consensus]] and with France during the period of [[dirigisme]] after [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite journal|last= Schmidt|first= Vivien A.|date= November 2004|title= French capitalism transformed, yet still a third variety of capitalism|url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228796770 |journal= Economy and Society|volume= 32|issue= 4|pages= 526–554|doi= 10.1080/0308514032000141693|s2cid= 145716949}}</ref> Other examples include Singapore under [[Lee Kuan Yew]]<ref>Berger, Mark T. (August 1997). "Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism: Asian Values, Free Market Illusions, and Political Dependency by Christopher Lingle". "Book Reviews". ''The Journal of Asian Studies''. Cambridge University Press. '''56''' (3) 853–854. {{doi| 10.1017/S0021911800035129}}. {{JSTOR| i325583}}.</ref><ref>Lingle, Christopher; Owens, Amanda J.; Rowley, Charles K., eds. (Summer 1998). "Singapore and Authoritarian Capitalism". ''The Locke Luminary''. '''I''' (1).</ref><ref>Budhwar, Pawan S., ed. (2004). ''Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific''. Psychology Press. p. 221. {{ISBN|9780415300063}}.</ref><ref>Bhasin, Balbir B. (2007). [https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1119&context=neje "Fostering Entrepreneurship: Developing a Risktaking Culture in Singapore"]. ''New England Journal of Entrepreneurship''. '''10''' (2): 39–50. {{ISSN|1550-333X}}. Retrieved 23 April 2020.</ref> and Turkey,<ref>
Note for example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Ricz
 |first1               = Judit
 |editor-last1         = Ricz
 |editor-first1        = Judit
 |editor-last2         = Gerőcs
 |editor-first2        = Tamás
 |date                 = 17 February 2023
 |chapter              = Introduction: Emerging Market Economies and Alternative Development Paths
 |title                = The Political Economy of Emerging Markets and Alternative Development Paths
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=VtSuEAAAQBAJ
 |series               = International Political Economy Series – ISSN 2662-2491
 |location             = Cham
 |publisher            = Springer Nature
 |page                 = 11
 |isbn                 = 9783031207020
 |access-date          = 1 December 2023
 |quote                = [...] the role of state-owned enterprises, the manufacturing sector, various types of rents and the specificities of the Belarusian and Turkish state capitaliusm.
}} 
</ref>
as well as [[military dictatorship]]s during the [[Cold War]] and [[fascist]] regimes such as [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bel |first=Germà |date= April 2006 |title=Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany |url= http://www.ub.edu/graap/nazi.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110720073011/http://www.ub.edu/graap/nazi.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-20  |journal= Economic History Review |publisher= University of Barcelona |volume= 63 |issue=1 |pages=34–55 |doi= 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00473.x |access-date=8 July 2020 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2445/11716 |s2cid=154486694}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Gat|first=Azar|date=August 2007|title=The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers|url= https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2007-07-01/return-authoritarian-great-powers|journal= Foreign Affairs|publisher= Council on Foreign Relations|volume= 86|issue= 4|pages=59–69|jstor=20032415}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fuchs|first=Christian|date=29 June 2017|title=The Relevance of Franz L. Neumann's Critical Theory in 2017: Anxiety and Politics in the New Age of Authoritarian Capitalism|url= https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/3d32b4bfd248b58cca5d0f68ede8ee936bb6e3dd0572344e82c86089553b79b0/570163/Neumann_Christian_tripleC.pdf|journal= Media, Culture & Society|volume=40|issue=5|pages=779–791 |doi= 10.1177/0163443718772147|access-date=8 July 2020|s2cid=149705789}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last= Fuchs|first= Christian|date= 27 April 2018|title= Authoritarian Capitalism, Authoritarian Movements, Authoritarian Communication|url= http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/AuthoritarianCapitalism_MCS.pdf|journal= TripleC|volume= 15|issue= 2|pages= 637–650|doi= 10.1177/0163443718772147|access-date= 8 July 2020|s2cid= 149705789|archive-date= 13 October 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191013201908/http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/AuthoritarianCapitalism_MCS.pdf|url-status= dead}}</ref>

The phrase "state capitalism" has also come to be used (sometimes interchangeably with "[[state monopoly capitalism]]") to describe a system where the state intervenes in the economy to protect and advance the interests of [[big business|large-scale businesses]]. [[Noam Chomsky]], a [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialist]], applies the term "state capitalism" to the [[economy of the United States]], where large enterprises that are deemed by "[[the powers that be]]" as "[[too big to fail]]" receive publicly-funded government bailouts that mitigate the firms' assumption of risk and undermine [[market laws]], and where private production is largely funded by the state at public expense, but private owners reap the profits.<ref>{{cite web|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|date=18 May 2005 |title= State and Corp. Noam Chomsky interviewed by uncredited interviewer|url= http://chomsky.info/20050518/ |access-date=26 June 2020|website=Znet Germany|via=Chomsky.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite speech|last= Chomsky|first= Noam|date= 7 April 2011|url= http://chomsky.info/20110407-2/|title=The State-Corporate Complex: A Threat to Freedom and Survival|location= University of Toronto|access-date= 26 June 2020|via= Chomsky.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1= Chomsky|first1= Noam|last2= Segantini|first2= Tommaso|date= 22 September 2015|title=History Doesn't Go In a Straight Line|newspaper=Jacobin|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/noam-chomsky-bernie-sanders-greece-tsipras-grexit-austerity-neoliberalism-protest/|access-date= 26 June 2020}}</ref> This practice is contrasted with the ideals of both [[socialism]] and ''[[laissez-faire]]'' capitalism.<ref>Johnson, Allan G. (2000). ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology''. Blackwell Publishing. p. 306. {{ISBN|0-631-21681-2}}.{{request quotation|date=December 2023}} In 2008, the U.S. National Intelligence Council used the term in ''Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed'' to describe the development of China, India and Russia.</ref>

There are various theories and critiques of state capitalism, some of which existed before the Russian [[October Revolution]] of 1917. The common themes among them identify that the workers do not meaningfully control the means of production and that capitalist [[Relations of production|social relations]] and [[production for profit]] still occur within state capitalism, fundamentally retaining the [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]]. In ''[[Socialism: Utopian and Scientific]]'' (1880), [[Friedrich Engels]] argued that state ownership does not do away with capitalism by itself, but rather would be the final stage of capitalism, consisting of ownership and [[management]] of large-scale production and communication by the [[bourgeois state]]. He argued that the tools for ending capitalism are found in state capitalism.<ref name="Engels 19702">Engels, Friedrich (1970) [1880]. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/ ''Socialism: Utopian and Scientific'']. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/ch03.htm "Historical Materialism"]. ''Marx/Engels Selected Works''. '''3'''.  Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 95–151 – via Marxists Internet Archive.</ref> In ''[[Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]]'' (1916), [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] claimed that [[World War I]] had transformed ''[[laissez-faire]]'' [[capitalism]] into [[monopolist]] state capitalism.<ref>Lenin, Vladimir (1963) [1916]. ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism''. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch01.htm "Concentration of Production and Monopolies"]. ''Lenin Selected Works''. '''1'''. Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 667–776. {{ISBN|9780141192567}} – via Marxists Internet Archive.</ref>

== Origins and early usage ==
[[File:Engels 1856.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Friedrich Engels]], who argued that state ownership does not do away with capitalism by itself<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Engels |title=Herr Eugen Dührings omvälvning av vetenskapen (Anti-Dühring) |year=1976 |publisher=Arbetarkultur |isbn=91-7014-078-2 |edition=2nd |location=Lund |pages=382–385}}</ref>]]
In ''[[Socialism: Utopian and Scientific]]'' (1880), [[Friedrich Engels]] described [[state ownership]], i.e. state capitalism, as follows:
<blockquote>If the crisis revealed the incapacity of the bourgeoisie any longer to control the modern productive forces, the conversion of the great organizations for production and communication into joint-stock companies and state property shows that for this purpose the bourgeoisie can be dispensed with. All the social functions of the capitalists are now carried out by salaried employees. The capitalist has no longer any social activity save the pocketing of revenues, the clipping of coupons, and gambling on the stock exchange, where the different capitalists fleece each other of their capital. Just as at first the capitalist mode of production displaced the workers, so now it displaces the capitalists, relegating them to the superfluous population even if not in the first instance to the industrial reserve army.<ref name="Engels 19702" /></blockquote>

Engels argued that the tools for ending capitalism are found in state capitalism, further writing:
<blockquote>But neither the conversion into joint stock companies nor into state property deprives the productive forces of their character as capital. In the case of joint-stock companies this is obvious. And the modern state, too, is only the organization with which bourgeois society provides itself in order to maintain the general external conditions of the capitalist mode of production against encroachments either by the workers or by individual capitalists. The modern state, whatever its form, is then the state of the capitalists, the ideal collective body of all the capitalists. The more productive forces it takes over as its property, the more it becomes the real collective body of the capitalists, the more citizens it exploits. The workers remain wage-earners, proletarians. The capitalist relationship isn't abolished; it is rather pushed to the extreme. But at this extreme it is transformed into its opposite. State ownership of the productive forces is not the solution of the conflict, but it contains within itself the formal means, the key to the solution.<ref name="Engels 19702" /></blockquote>

{{multiple image|total_width=330|image1=Bakunin Nadar.jpg|width1=230|height1=300|caption1=[[Mikhail Bakunin]], who criticized state socialism as state capitalism, predicting that if the Marxists were successful in seizing power, they would create a party dictatorship|image2=Wilhelm Liebknecht 2.jpg|width2=230|height2=290|caption2=[[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], who criticized [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s [[State Socialism (Germany)|State Socialism]] policy as being "really State capitalism"}}
Engels described state capitalism as a new form or variant of capitalism.<ref name=":0" /> In 1896, following Engels, the German Social Democrat [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]] said: "Nobody has combated [[State Socialism (Germany)|State Socialism]] more than we [[History of the Social Democratic Party of Germany|German Socialists]]; nobody has shown more distinctively than I that State Socialism is really State capitalism."<ref>{{cite journal|first=Wilhelm|last=Liebknecht|date=August 1986|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-w/1896/08/our-congress.htm|title=Our Recent Congress|journal=Justice|page=4|access-date=26 June 2020|via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref>

It has been suggested that the concept of state capitalism can be traced back to [[Mikhail Bakunin]]'s critique during the [[First International]] of the potential for state exploitation under Marxist-inspired socialism, or to [[Jan Wacław Machajski]]'s argument in ''The Intellectual Worker'' (1905) that socialism was a movement of the [[intelligentsia]] as a class, resulting in a new type of society he termed ''state capitalism''.<ref>Bottomore, T. B. (1961). ''Elites and Society''. London: Watts. p. 54.</ref><ref name="Fox - Ante Ciliga"/><ref>Gouldner, A. W. (November 1982). "Marx's Last Battle: Bakunin and the First International". ''Theory and Society''. Springer. '''11''' (6): pp. 853–884. {{JSTOR|657194}} Gouldner argues that Bakunin formulated an original critique of Marxism as "the ideology, not of the working class, but of a new class of scientific intelligentsia—who would corrupt socialism, make themselves a new elite, and impose their rule on the majority" (pp. 860–861).</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Shatz|first=Marshall S.|year=1989|url=http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/cont.html|title=Jan Waclaw Machajski: A Radical Critic of the Russian Intelligentsia and Socialism|series=Russian and East European Studies|location=Pittsburgh|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0822985143|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026180626/http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/cont.html|archive-date=26 October 2009|access-date=26 October 2009|via=GeoCities}}</ref><ref>''Slavic Review'' (Spring 1991). Cambridge University Press. '''50''' (1): 127–143. {{JSTOR|i322594}} Published in Croatian translation in ''Časopis za suvremenu povijest'' [''Journal of Contemporary History''] (1994). Zagreb. (3): 427–450.</ref> For anarchists, [[state socialism]] is equivalent to state capitalism, hence oppressive and merely a shift from private capitalists to the state being the sole employer and capitalist.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=McKay|editor-first=Iain|year=2012|section-url=http://www.infoshop.org/faq/secH3.html#sech313|section=Why is state socialism just state capitalism?|title=An Anarchist FAQ|volume=II|location=Stirling|publisher=AK Press|isbn=9781849351225|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219024910/http://www.infoshop.org/faq/secH3.html#sech313|archive-date=19 December 2009|access-date=26 June 2020|via=Infoshop}}</ref>

In ''[[Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]]'' and ''Imperialism and World Economy'', both [[Vladimir Lenin]] and [[Nikolai Bukharin]], respectively, had similarly identified the growth of state capitalism as one of the main features of capitalism in its imperialist epoch.<ref>Lenin, Vladimir (1948) [1916]. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'']. London: Lawrence and Wishart. {{ISBN|9780141192567}} – via Marxists Internet Archive.</ref><ref>Bukharin, Nikolai (1929) [1917]. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1917/imperial/ ''Imperialism and World Economy'']. International Publishers. p. 157 – via Marxists Internet Archive.</ref><ref name="CWO 2000">Communist Workers Organisation (2000). [http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2000-10-01/trotsky-and-trotskyism "Trotsky, Trotskyism, Trotskyists: From Revolution to Social Democracy"]. [http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2000-10-01/trotsky-and-the-origins-of-trotskyism "Trotsky and the Origins of Trotskyism"]. "The Nature of the USSR". Internationalist Communist Tendency. Retrieved 22 June 2020.</ref> In ''[[The State and Revolution]]'', Lenin wrote that "the erroneous bourgeois reformist assertion that monopoly capitalism or state-monopoly capitalism is no longer capitalism, but can now be called "state socialism" and so on, is very common".<ref>Lenin, Vladimir (1964) [1917]. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ ''The State and Revolution'']. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch04.htm "Supplementary Explanations by Engels"]. ''Lenin Collected Works''. '''25'''. Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 381–492 – via Marxists Internet Archive.</ref> During [[World War I]], using Lenin's idea that [[tsarism]] was taking a Prussian path to capitalism, the [[Bolshevik]] Nikolai Bukharin identified a new stage in the development of capitalism in which all sectors of national production and all important social institutions had become managed by the state—he termed this new stage ''state capitalism''.<ref>Bukharin, Nikolai (1972) [1915]. ''Imperialism and World Economy''. London: Merlin. p. 158. {{ISBN|978-0850361551}}.</ref> After the [[October Revolution]], Lenin used the term ''state capitalism'' positively. In spring 1918, during a brief period of economic liberalism prior to the introduction of [[war communism]] and again during the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP) of 1921, Lenin justified the introduction of state capitalism controlled politically by the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] to further central control and develop the [[productive forces]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Aufheben Collective|year=2015|url=http://www.geocities.com/aufheben2/auf_6_ussr1.html|title=What Was the USSR?: Towards a Theory of the Deformation of Value Under State Capitalism|location=Edmont|publisher=Thoughtcrime Ink|isbn=9780981289731|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040318182051/http://www.geocities.com/aufheben2/auf_6_ussr1.html|archive-date=18 March 2004|access-date=26 June 2020|via=GeoCities}}</ref> making the following point:<ref>{{cite book|last=Lenin|first=Vladimir|year=1972|orig-year=1918|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/apr/29.htm|title=Session of the All-Russia C.E.C.|work=Collected Works|edition=4th English|volume=27|location=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers|pages=279–313|access-date=26 June 2020|via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref>
<blockquote>Reality tells us that state capitalism would be a step forward. If in a small space of time we could achieve state capitalism, that would be a victory.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lenin|first=Vladimir|year=1972|orig-year=1918|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/apr/29.htm|title=Session of the All-Russia C.E.C.|work=Collected Works|edition=4th English|volume=27|location=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers|page=293|access-date=26 June 2020|via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Pena|first=David S.|date=22 September 2007|url=http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5869/|title=Tasks of Working-Class Governments under the Socialist-oriented Market Economy|journal=Political Affairs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905230042/http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5869/|archive-date=5 September 2008|access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref></blockquote>

Lenin argued the state should temporarily run the economy which would eventually be taken over by workers.<ref name="marxists.org">{{cite book|last=Lenin|first=Vladimir|year=1964|orig-year=1917|chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm#s4|chapter=The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/|title=The State and Revolution|work=Lenin Collected Works|volume=25|location=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishing|pages=381–492|access-date=26 June 2020|via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> To Lenin, ''state capitalism'' did not mean the state would run most of the economy, but that state capitalism would be one of five elements of the economy:<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
{{Blockquote|text=State capitalism would be a step forward as compared with the present state of affairs in our Soviet Republic. If in approximately six months' time state capitalism became established in our Republic, this would be a great success and a sure guarantee that within a year socialism will have gained a permanently firm hold.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|last=Lenin|first=Vladimir|year=1965|orig-year=1921|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/apr/21.htm|title=The Tax in Kind (The Significance of the New Policy and Its Conditions)|work=Lenin Collected Works|volume=32|translator-last=Sdobnikov|translator-first=Tury|edition=1st English|location=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishing|pages=329–365|access-date=26 June 2020|via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref>}}

=== By the left ===
As a term and concept, state capitalism has been used by various [[socialists]], including [[anarchists]], [[Marxists]], [[Leninists]], [[left communists]], [[Marxist–Leninists]] and [[Trotskyists]].

==== Anarchists ====
{{multiple image
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| footer            = [[Emma Goldman]] (left) and [[Murray Bookchin]] (right) were two prominent anarchists who argued that the Soviet Union was state capitalist and criticized the [[Bolsheviks]] for it.
}}

Perhaps the earliest critique of the [[Soviet Union]] as state capitalist was formulated by the Russian anarchists as documented in [[Paul Avrich]]'s work on Russian anarchism.<ref>Paul Avrich, 1967, ''The Russian Anarchists'', Princeton University Press, chapter 7.</ref>

The Russian anarchists' claim would become standard in anarchist works. Of the Soviet Union, the prominent anarchist [[Emma Goldman]] wrote an article from 1935 titled "There Is No Communism in Russia" in which she argued:
<blockquote>Such a condition of affairs may be called state capitalism, but it would be fantastic to consider it in any sense Communistic [...] Soviet Russia, it must now be obvious, is an absolute despotism politically and the crassest form of state capitalism economically.<ref>{{cite web |author=Emma Goldman |date=1935 |title=There Is No Communism in Russia |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-there-is-no-communism-in-russia |work=The Anarchist Library}}</ref></blockquote>

When speaking about [[Marxism]], [[Murray Bookchin]] said the following:
<blockquote>Marxism, in fact, becomes ideology. It is assimilated by the most advanced forms of state capitalist movement — notably Russia. By an incredible irony of history, Marxian 'socialism' turns out to be in large part the very state capitalism that Marx failed to anticipate in the dialectic of capitalism. The proletariat, instead of developing into a revolutionary class within the womb of capitalism, turns out to be an organ within the body of bourgeois society [...] Lenin sensed this and described 'socialism' as 'nothing but state capitalist monopoly made to benefit the whole people'. This is an extraordinary statement if one thinks out its implications, and a mouthful of contradictions.<ref>{{cite web |author=Murray Bookchin |date=1971 |title=Listen, Marxist! |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-listen-marxist |work=The Anarchist Library}}</ref></blockquote>

While speaking about [[Leninism]], the authors of ''An Anarchist FAQ'' say:
<blockquote>Rather than present an effective and efficient means of achieving revolution, the Leninist model is elitist, hierarchical and highly inefficient in achieving a socialist society. At best, these parties play a harmful role in the class struggle by alienating activists and militants with their organisational principles and manipulative tactics within popular structures and groups. At worst, these parties can seize power and create a new form of class society (a state capitalist one) in which the working class is oppressed by new bosses (namely, the party hierarchy and its appointees).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoshop.org/AnarchistFAQSectionH5#sech510|title=An Anarchist FAQ – H.5 What was the Kronstadt Rebellion? (What is vanguardism and why do anarchists reject it?)|publisher=Infoshop|access-date=1 January 2016}}</ref></blockquote>

==== Classical and orthodox Marxists ====
{{Marxism}}
Immediately after the Russian Revolution, many Western Marxists questioned whether socialism was possible in Russia. Specifically, [[Karl Kautsky]] said:
{{Blockquote|It is only the old feudal large landed property which exists no longer. Conditions in Russia were ripe for its abolition but they were not ripe for the abolition of capitalism. Capitalism is now once again celebrating a resurrection, but in forms that are more oppressive and harrowing for the proletariat than of old.

Instead of assuming higher industrialised forms, private capitalism has assumed the most wretched and shabby forms of black marketeering and money speculation. Industrial capitalism has developed to become state capitalism. Formerly state officials and officials from private capital were critical, often very hostile towards each other.

Consequently the working man found that his advantage lay with one or the other in turn. Today the state bureaucracy and capitalist bureaucracy are merged into one—that is the upshot of the great socialist revolution brought about by the Bolsheviks. It constitutes the most oppressive of all despotisms that Russia has ever had to suffer.<ref>Kautsky, K. 1919 [1983]. Terrorism and Communism. Cited from P. Goode (ed.), Karl Kautsky: Selected Political Writings. London: Macmillan, 1983, cited in [http://www.hetsa.org.au/pdf/34-A-08.pdf 'State Capitalism' in the Soviet Union M.C. Howard and J.E. King]</ref>}}

After 1929, exiled [[Mensheviks]] such as [[Fyodor Dan]] began to argue that Stalin's Russia constituted a state capitalist society.<ref>Liebich, A. 1987. 'Marxism and totalitarianism: Rudolf Hilferding and the Mensheviks', ''Dissent'' 34, Spring, pp. 223–40</ref> In the United Kingdom, the orthodox Marxist group the [[Socialist Party of Great Britain]] independently developed a similar doctrine. Although initially beginning with the idea that Soviet capitalism differed little from western capitalism, they later began to argue that the bureaucracy held its productive property in common, much like the [[Catholic Church]]'s.<ref>State capitalism: the wages system under new management / Adam Buick and John Crump. Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1986. {{ISBN|0-333-36775-8}}</ref> As John O'Neill notes:
{{Blockquote|Whatever other merits or problems their theories had, in arguing that the Russian revolution was from the outset a capitalist revolution they avoided the ad hoc and post hoc nature of more recent Maoist- and Trotskyist-inspired accounts of state capitalism, which start from the assumption that the Bolshevik revolution inaugurated a socialist economy that at some later stage degenerated into capitalism.<ref>Buick, Adam; Crump, John; O'Neill, John (July–September 1988). ''State Capitalism: The Wages System Under New Management''. ''Political Quarterly''. '''59''' (3): 398–399.</ref>}}

Writing in the Menshevik journal ''Socialist Courier'' on 25 April 25, [[Rudolf Hilferding]] rejected the concept of state capitalism, noting that as practiced in the Soviet Union it lacked the dynamic aspects of capitalism such as a market which set prices or a set of entrepreneurs and investors which allocated capital. According to Hilferding, state capitalism was not a form of capitalism, but rather a form of [[totalitarianism]].<ref name="Marxist">{{cite web |author1=Rudolf Hilferding |author-link1=Rudolf Hilferding |title=State Capitalism or Totalitarian State Economy |website=marxists.org |publisher=Socialist Courier |access-date=June 17, 2018 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/hilferding/1940/statecapitalism.htm |date=April 25, 1940 |quote=A capitalist economy is governed by the laws of the market (analyzed by Marx) and the autonomy of these laws constitutes the decisive symptom of the capitalist system of production}}</ref>

==== Communist left and council communists ====
{{left communism sidebar}}
Another early analysis of the Soviet Union as state capitalist came from various groups advocating [[left communism]]. One major tendency of the [[Left communism#Russian left communism|1918 Russian communist left]] criticised the re-employment of [[authoritarian]] capitalist relations and methods of production. As [[Valerian Osinsky]] in particular argued, "one-man management" (rather than the democratic factory committees workers had established and Lenin abolished)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/brinton/1970/workers-control/02.htm|title=The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control: The State and Counter-Revolution|author=Maurice Brinton|date=1970|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=1 January 2016}}</ref> and the other impositions of capitalist discipline would stifle the active participation of workers in the organisation of production. [[Taylorism]] converted workers into the appendages of machines and [[piece work]] imposed individualist rather than collective rewards in production so instilling [[petty bourgeois]] values into workers. In sum, these measures were seen as the re-transformation of proletarians within production from collective subject back into the atomised objects of capital. The working class, it was argued, had to participate consciously in economic as well as political administration. In 1918, this tendency within the left communists emphasized that the problem with capitalist production was that it treated workers as objects. Its [[Transcendence (philosophy)|transcendence]] lay in the workers' conscious creativity and participation, which is reminiscent of [[Marx's critique of alienation]].<ref>Jerome, W. and Buick, A. 1967. 'Soviet state capitalism? The history of an idea', ''Survey'' 62, January, pp. 58–71.</ref>

This type of criticism was revived on the left of the [[Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik)|Russian Communist Party]] after the [[10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|10th Congress]] in 1921, which introduced the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP). Many members of the [[Workers' Opposition]] and the [[Decists]] (both later banned) and two new underground left communist groups, [[Gavril Myasnikov]]'s Workers' Group and the Workers' Truth group, developed the idea that Russia was becoming a state capitalist society governed by a new bureaucratic class.<ref name="Fox - Ante Ciliga"/><ref>EH Carr, ''The Interregnum 1923–1924'', London, 1954, p80</ref> The most developed version of this idea was in a 1931 booklet by Myasnikov.<ref>Marshall Shatz {{cite web |url=http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/machg.html |title=Makhaevism after Machajski |access-date=2014-04-07 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027132629/http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/machg.html |archive-date=October 27, 2009 }}</ref>

The left and [[council communist]] traditions outside Russia consider the Soviet system as state capitalist,<ref>Bordiga, Amadeo (1952). [https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1952/stalin.htm "Dialogue With Stalin"]. Translated by Libri Incogniti. ''Il Programma Comunista''. Retrieved 11 November 2019.</ref><ref>Mattick, Paul (1978). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1945/otto-ruhle.htm "Otto Rühle and the German Labour Movement"]. ''Anti-Bolshevik Communism''. London: Merlin Press. {{ISBN|9780850362237}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Goldner|first=Loren|year=1995|title=Amadeo Bordiga, the Agrarian Question and the International Revolutionary Movement|journal=Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory|volume=23|issue=1|pages=73–100|doi=10.1080/03017609508413387}}</ref> although some left communists such as [[Amadeo Bordiga]] also referred to it as simply ''capitalism'' or ''capitalist mode of production''.<ref name="CWO 2000"/><ref>Aufheben (2015). [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/aufheben-what-was-the-ussr ''What Was the USSR?: Towards a Theory of the Deformation of Value Under State Capitalism''] . [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/aufheben-what-was-the-ussr#toc43 "Part III: Left Communism and the Russian Revolution"]. Edmont: Thoughtcrime Ink. {{ISBN|9780981289731}}. Retrieved 8 July 2020 – via The Anarchist Library.</ref> [[Otto Rühle]], a major German left communist, developed this idea from the 1920s and it was later articulated by Dutch council communist [[Anton Pannekoek]] in "State Capitalism and Dictatorship" (1936).<ref>Pannekoek, Anton (January 1937). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1936/dictatorship.htm "State Capitalism and Dictatorship"]. ''International Council Correspondence''. '''III''' (1). Retrieved 26 June 2020.</ref>

==== Trotskyists ====
{{Third Camp}}
[[Leon Trotsky]] stated that the term ''state capitalism'' "originally arose to designate the phenomena which arise when a bourgeois state takes direct charge of the means of transport or of industrial enterprises" and is therefore a "partial negation" of capitalism.<ref>{{cite book|first=Leon|last=Trotsky|author-link=Leon Trotsky|title=The Revolution Betrayed|publisher=Newton Abbot: David & Charles|place=Mineola, New York: Dover|isbn=0-486-43398-6|year=2004|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/index.htm|access-date=31 May 2007|others=Eastman, Max}}</ref>

However, Trotsky rejected that description of the [[Soviet Union]], claiming instead that it was a [[degenerated workers' state]]. After [[World War II]], [[Orthodox Trotskyism|most Trotskyists]] accepted an analysis of the Soviet bloc countries as being [[deformed workers' states]]. However, alternative opinions within the Trotskyist tradition have developed the theory of state capitalism as a [[new class]] theory to explain what they regard as the essentially non-socialist nature of the Soviet Union, [[Cuba]], [[China]] and other self-proclaimed [[List of non-communist socialist states|socialist states]].

The discussion goes back to internal debates in the [[Left Opposition]] during the late 1920s and early 1930s. [[Ante Ciliga]], a member of the Left Opposition imprisoned at Verkhne-Uralsk in the 1930s, described the evolution of many within the Left Opposition to a theory of state capitalism influenced by [[Gavril Myasnikov]]'s Workers Group and other left communist factions.<ref name="Fox - Ante Ciliga">{{cite journal|last=Fox|first=Michael S.|date=Spring 1991|url=http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/ciliga_trotsky.pdf|title=Ante Ciliga, Trotskii, and State Capitalism: Theory, Tactics, and Reevaluation during the Purge Era, 1935–1939|publisher=Cambridge University Press|journal=Slavic Review|volume=50|issue=1|pages=127–143|doi=10.2307/2500604|jstor=2500604|s2cid=155654843 |url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027132653/http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/ciliga_trotsky.pdf|archive-date=27 October 2009|access-date=26 June 2020|via=GeoCities}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Ante|last=Ciliga|title=Au pays du grand mensonge|year=1938}}</ref><ref>Philippe Bourrinet, "[http://www.left-dis.nl/uk/ciliga.htm An Ambiguous Journey]"</ref>

Following his release and his return to activity in the [[International Left Opposition]], Ciliga "was one of the first, after 1936, to raise the theory [of state capitalism] in Trotskyist circles".<ref name="Fox - Ante Ciliga"/> [[George Orwell]], who was an [[anti-Stalinist left]]ist like Ciliga, used the term in his ''[[Homage to Catalonia]]'' (1938).

After 1940, dissident Trotskyists developed more theoretically sophisticated accounts of state capitalism. One influential formulation has been that of the [[Johnson–Forest Tendency]] of [[C. L. R. James]] and [[Raya Dunayevskaya]], who formulated her theory in the early 1940s on the basis of a study of the first three [[Five-year plans of the Soviet Union|Five Year Plan]]s alongside readings of Marx's [[Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844|early humanist writings]].<ref>Dunayevskaya, Raya (1941). [https://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1941/ussr-capitalist.htm "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a Capitalist Society"].'' Internal Discussion Bulletin of the Workers Party''. Retrieved 23 April 2020.</ref><ref>Dunayevskaya, Raya (1946). [https://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1946/statecap.htm "The Nature of the Russian Economy"]. ''The New International''. '''XII''' (10): 313–317. '''XIII''' (1/January 1947): 27–30. Retrieved 23 April 2020.</ref><ref>Boggs, Grace Lee; Dunayevskaya, Ray; James, C. L. R. (1986).''State Capitalism and World Revolution''. Chicago: Charles H. R. Publishing Company. {{ISBN|9780882860794}}. Retrieved 23 April 2020.</ref> Their political evolution would lead them away from Trotskyism.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gWA0AAAAIAAJ&q= ''State-capitalism and World Revolution by Johnson-Forest''], Socialist Workers Party, 1950.</ref>

Another is that of [[Tony Cliff]], associated with the [[International Socialist Tendency]] and the British [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|Socialist Workers Party]] (SWP), dating back to the late 1940s. Unlike Johnson–Forest, Cliff formulated a theory of state capitalism that would enable his group to remain Trotskyists, albeit heterodox ones.<ref>Aufheben Cliff and the [[neo-Trotskyist]] theory of the USSR as state capitalist in What Was The USSR?</ref> A relatively recent text by [[Stephen Resnick]] and [[Richard D. Wolff]], titled ''Class Theory and History'', explores what they term ''state capitalism'' in the former Soviet Union, continuing a theme that has been debated within Trotskyist theory for most of the past century.

Other terms used by critical left-wing theorists in discussing Soviet-style societies include [[bureaucratic collectivism]], [[deformed workers' state]]s, [[degenerated workers' state]]s and the "[[new class]]".

==== Maoists and anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninists ====
In the common program set up by the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]] in 1949, in effect the country's interim constitution, state capitalism meant an economic system of corporatism. It provided as follows: "Whenever necessary and possible, private capital shall be encouraged to develop in the direction of state capitalism".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1949-ccp-program.asp|title=Modern History Sourcebook: The Common Program of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, 1949|work=[[Fordham University]]|access-date=19 January 2019}}</ref>

From 1956 to the late 1970s, the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) and their [[Maoist]] or [[anti-revisionist]] adherents around the world often described the Soviet Union as state capitalist, essentially using the accepted Marxist definition, albeit on a different basis and in reference to a different span of time from either the Trotskyists or the left-communists. Specifically, the Maoists and their descendants use the term state capitalism as part of their description of the style and politics of [[Nikita Khrushchev]] and his successors as well as to similar leaders and policies in other self-styled "socialist" states.<ref>[http://www.mltranslations.org/Ireland/ico.htm ''The Economics of Revisionism''] by the Irish Communist Organisation, 1967.</ref> This was involved in the ideological [[Sino–Soviet split]].

After [[Mao Zedong]]'s death, amidst the supporters of the [[Cultural Revolution]] and the [[Gang of Four (China)|Gang of Four]], most extended the state capitalist formulation to China itself and ceased to support the CCP which likewise distanced itself from these former [[Fraternal party|fraternal]] groups. The related theory of [[Hoxhaism]] was developed in 1978, largely by [[Socialist People's Republic of Albania|Socialist Albanian]] President [[Enver Hoxha]], who insisted that Mao himself had pursued state capitalist and [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]] economic policies.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/toc.htm ''Imperialism and the Revolution''] by Enver Hoxha, 1978.</ref>

Most current communist groups descended from the Maoist ideological tradition still adopt the description of both China and the Soviet Union as being state capitalist from a certain point in their history onwards—most commonly, the Soviet Union from 1956 to its collapse in 1991 and China from 1976 to the present. Maoists and anti-revisionists also sometimes use the term ''[[social imperialism]]'' to describe socialist states that they consider to be actually capitalist in essence—their phrase, "socialist in words, imperialist in deeds" denotes this.

===By liberal economists===
[[File:Murray Rothbard.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.6|[[Murray Rothbard]], who advanced a [[right-libertarian]] analysis of state capitalism]]
[[Murray Rothbard]], an [[anarcho-capitalist]] philosopher, used the term ''state capitalism'' interchangeably with the term ''[[state monopoly capitalism]]'' and used it to describe a partnership of government and big business in which the state intervenes on behalf of large capitalists against the interests of consumers.<ref>{{cite book|first = Murray|last = Rothbard|author-link = Murray Rothbard|contribution = A Future of Peace and Capitalism|editor = James H. Weaver|title = Modern Political Economy|publisher = Allyn and Bacon|place = Boston|year = 1973|contribution-url = https://www.mises.org/story/1559|access-date = 2007-05-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Rothbard|first=Murray|author-link=Murray Rothbard|year=2000|others=Left and right: the prospects for liberty|title=Egalitarianism as a revolt against nature and other essays|url=http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard33.html|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|place=Auburn, Ala.}}</ref>

[[File:Ludwig von Mises.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.6|[[Ludwig von Mises]], who described state capitalism as a form of [[state socialism]]]]
Rothbard distinguished it from ''[[laissez-faire]]'' [[capitalism]], where big business is not protected from market forces. This usage dates from the 1960s, when [[Harry Elmer Barnes]] described the post-New Deal economy of the United States as "state capitalism". More recently, [[Andrei Illarionov]], former economic adviser to Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]], resigned in December 2005, protesting Russia's "embracement of state capitalism".<ref>{{cite news | last = Andrei | first = Illarionov | author-link = Andrei Illarionov | title = When the state means business | work = International Herald and Tribune| date = 2006-01-25| url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/25/opinion/edandrei.php}}</ref>

The term ''state capitalism'' is not used by [[classical liberals]] to describe the public ownership of the means of production. The explanation why was given by the [[Austrian School]] economist [[Ludwig von Mises]], who argued:
<blockquote>The socialist movement takes great pains to circulate frequently new labels for its ideally constructed state. Each worn-out label is replaced by another which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic problem of Socialism — until it becomes obvious that nothing has been changed but the name. The most recent slogan is "State Capitalism." It is not commonly realized that this covers nothing more than what used to be called Planned Economy and State Socialism, and that State Capitalism, Planned Economy, and State Socialism diverge only in non-essentials from the "classic" ideal of egalitarian Socialism.<ref>{{cite book|first = Ludwig|last = Von Mises|author-link = Ludwig Von Mises|title = Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis|publisher = LibertyClassics|place = Indianapolis|year = 1979|isbn = 0-913966-63-0|url = https://archive.org/details/socialismeconomi00vonm|access-date = 31 May 2007|url-access = registration}}</ref></blockquote>

=== By Italian Fascists ===
[[File:Mussolini biografia.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Benito Mussolini]], who claimed that the modern phase of capitalism is state socialism "turned on its head"]]
On economic issues, [[Italian Fascist]] leader [[Benito Mussolini]] claimed in 1933 that were [[Fascism]] to follow the modern phase of capitalism, its path would "lead inexorably into state capitalism, which is nothing more nor less than [[state socialism]] turned on its head. In either event, [whether the outcome be state capitalism or state socialism] the result is the bureaucratization of the economic activities of the nation".<ref>Mussolini, Benito; "Address to the National Corporative Council (14 November 1933)". ''Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions''. Fertig, 1978.</ref>

Mussolini claimed that capitalism had degenerated in three stages, starting with dynamic or [[heroic capitalism]] (1830–1870), followed by static capitalism (1870–1914) and then reaching its final form of decadent capitalism, also known as [[Supercapitalism (concept in Italian Fascism)|supercapitalism]] beginning in 1914.<ref>Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. ''Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy''. University of California Press, 2000. pp. 136.</ref>

Mussolini denounced supercapitalism for causing the "standardization of humankind" and for causing excessive consumption.<ref>Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. ''Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy''. University of California Press, 2000. pp. 137.</ref> Mussolini claimed that at this stage of supercapitalism "[it] is then that a capitalist enterprise, when difficulties arise, throws itself like a dead weight into the state's arms. It is then that state intervention begins and becomes more necessary. It is then that those who once ignored the state now seek it out anxiously".<ref name="Mussolini, Benito 1933 pp. 158">Mussolini, Benito; Schnapp, Jeffery Thompson (ed.); Sears, Olivia E. (ed.); Stampino, Maria G. (ed.). "Address to the National Corporative Council (14 November 1933) and Senate Speech on the Bill Establishing the Corporations (abridged; 13 January 1934)". ''A Primer of Italian Fascism''. University of Nebraska Press, 2000. pp. 158.</ref> Due to the inability of businesses to operate properly when facing economic difficulties, Mussolini claimed that this proved that state intervention into the economy was necessary to stabilize the economy.<ref name="Mussolini, Benito 1933 pp. 158"/>

Mussolini claimed that dynamic or heroic capitalism and the [[bourgeoisie]] could be prevented from degenerating into static capitalism and then supercapitalism only if the concept of economic [[individualism]] were abandoned and if state supervision of the economy was introduced.<ref name="Salvemini. pp. 134">Salvemini, Gaetano. ''Under the Axe of Fascism''. READ BOOKS, 2006. pp. 134.</ref> [[Private enterprise]] would control production, but it would be supervised by the state.<ref name="Salvemini. p. 134">Salvemini. p. 134.</ref> Italian Fascism presented the economic system of [[corporatism]] as the solution that would preserve private enterprise and property while allowing the state to intervene in the economy when private enterprise failed.<ref name="Salvemini. pp. 134"/>

== In Western countries and European studies ==
An alternate definition is that state capitalism is a close relationship between the government and private capitalism such as one in which the private capitalists produce for a guaranteed market. An example of this would be the [[military–industrial complex]] in which autonomous [[entrepreneurial]] firms produce for lucrative government contracts and are not subject to the discipline of competitive markets.

Both the Trotskyist definition and this one derive from discussion among Marxists at the beginning of the 20th century, most notably [[Nikolai Bukharin]], who in his book ''Imperialism and World Economy'' thought that advanced, [[imperialist]] countries exhibited the latter definition and considered (and rejected) the possibility that they could arrive at the former.

State capitalism is practised by a variety of Western countries with respect to certain strategic resources important for [[national security]]. These may involve private investment as well. A government may own or even monopolize oil production or transport infrastructure to ensure availability in the case of war. Examples include [[Neste]], [[Equinor]] and [[OMV]].

There are limits according to arguments that state capitalism exists to ensure that wealth creation does not threaten the ruling elite's political power which remains unthreatened by tight connections between the government and the industries while state capitalist fears of capitalism's [[creative destruction]], the threat of revolution and any significant changes in the system result in the persistence of industries that have outlived their economic usefulness and an inefficient economic environment that is ill-equipped to inspire innovation.

Several European scholars and political economists have used the term to describe one of the three major varieties of capitalism that prevail in the modern context of the [[European Union]]. This approach is mainly influenced by Schmidt's (2002) article on ''The Futures of European Capitalism'', in which she divides modern European capitalism in three groups, namely market, managed and state. Here, state capitalism refers to a system where high coordination between the state, large companies and labour unions ensures economic growth and development in a quasi-[[corporatist]] model.

The author cites France and to a lesser extent Italy as the prime examples of modern European state capitalism.<ref>{{cite journal|first = Vivien|last = Schmidt|author-link = Vivien A. Schmidt|title = French Capitalism Transformed, yet still a Third Variety of Capitalism|journal = Economy and Society|publisher = Economy and Society Vol. 32 N. 4|date = November 2003|volume = 32|issue = 4|pages = 526–554|doi = 10.1080/0308514032000141693|s2cid = 145716949}}</ref> A general theory of capitalist forms, whereby state capitalism is a particular case, was developed by [[Ernesto Screpanti]], who argued that Soviet-type economies of the 20th century used state capitalism to sustain processes of primitive accumulation.<ref>Ernesto Screpanti, Capitalist Forms and the Essence of Capitalism, "Review of International Political Economy", vol. 6, n. 1, 1999; Ernesto Screpanti, The Fundamental Institutions of Capitalism, Routledge, London 2001.</ref> In their historical analysis of the Soviet Union, Marxist economists [[Richard D. Wolff]] and [[Stephen Resnick]] identify state capitalism as the dominant class system throughout the history of the Soviet Union.<ref>Resnick, Stephen; Wolff, Richard D. (2002). ''Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the U.S.S.R.'' London: Routledge.</ref>

=== State monopoly capitalism ===
The theory of [[state monopoly capitalism]] was initially a [[neo-Stalinist]] doctrine popularised after [[World War II]]. The term refers to an environment where the state intervenes in the economy to protect large monopolistic or [[Oligopoly|oligopolistic]] businesses from competition by smaller firms.<ref name="Blackwell 19912"/>

The main principle of the ideology is that big business, having achieved a [[monopoly]] or [[cartel]] position in most markets of importance, fuses with the government apparatus. A kind of financial [[oligarchy]] or conglomerate therefore results, whereby government officials aim to provide the social and legal framework within which giant corporations can operate most effectively. This is a close partnership between big business and government, and it is argued {{by whom?|date=November 2024}} that the aim is to integrate labour-unions completely in that partnership.

State monopoly capitalist (stamocap) theory aims to define the final historical stage of capitalism following monopoly capitalism, consistent with Lenin's definition of the characteristics of imperialism in his short pamphlet of the same name. Occasionally the stamocap concept also appears in [[neo-Trotskyist]] theories of state capitalism as well as in [[libertarian]] anti-state theories. The analysis made {{by whom?|date=November 2024}} is usually identical in its main features, but very different political conclusions are drawn from it.

==== Political implications ====
The strategic political implication of stamocap theory towards the end of the [[Joseph Stalin]] era and afterwards was that the labour movement should form a people's democratic alliance under the leadership of the communist party with the progressive middle classes and small business against the state and big business (called monopoly for short). Sometimes this alliance was also called the anti-monopoly alliance. At the 1965 Afro-Asian Conference, delivered at the Second Economic Seminar of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algeri, [[Che Guevara]] argued that "[e]ver since monopoly capital took over the world, it has kept the greater part of humanity in poverty, dividing all the profits among the group of the most powerful countries. The standard of living in those countries is based on the extreme poverty of our countries".<ref>Guevara, Che (24 February 1965). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/02/24.htm "At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria"]. In Deutschmann, David (2003). ''Che Guevara Reader: Writings on Politics & Revolution'' (2nd expanded ed.). New York: Che Guevara Studies Center and Ocean Press. {{ISBN|9781876175696}}. Retrieved 8 July 2020 – via Marxists Internet Archive.</ref>

==== Criticism ====
When [[Eugen Varga]] introduced the theory, orthodox Stalinist economists attacked it as incompatible with the doctrine that state planning was a feature only of socialism and that "under capitalism anarchy of production reigns".<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1949/varga.htm The Case of Eugene Varga] Raya Dunayevskaya 1949.</ref>

Critics of the stamocap theory (e.g. [[Ernest Mandel]] and [[Leo Kofler]]) claimed the following {{citation needed|date=November 2024}}:
* Stamocap theory wrongly implied that the state could somehow overrule inter-capitalist [[competition]], the laws of motion of capitalism and market forces generally, supposedly cancelling out the operation of the [[law of value]]. 
* Stamocap theory lacked any sophisticated account of the class basis of the [[State (polity)|state]] and the real linkages between governments and elites. It postulated a monolithic structure of [[wikt:domination|domination]] which in reality did not exist in that way.
* Stamocap theory failed to explain the rise of [[neoliberal]] ideology in the business class, which claims precisely that an important social goal should be a reduction of the state's influence in the economy. 
* Stamocap theory failed to show clearly what the difference was between a socialist state and a bourgeois state, except that in a socialist state the communist party, or rather its central committee, played the leading political role. In that case, the class-content of the state itself was defined purely in terms of the policy of the ruling political party or its central committee.

== Current forms in the 21st century ==
State capitalism is distinguished from capitalist [[mixed economies]] where the state [[State interventionism|intervenes]] in markets to correct [[market failure]]s or to establish social regulation or social welfare provisions in the following way: the state operates [[business]]es for the purpose of accumulating capital and directing investment in the framework of either a free market or a mixed-market economy. In such a system, governmental functions and public services are often organized as [[corporation]]s, companies or business enterprises.

In the state capitalism of the twenty-first century, the domestic and global aspects are more closely linked. In such a context, the state's intervention in the economy is associated with the strategy of countries to attain international prominence. Models of state capitalist strategies can be identified as a countries' endeavor to gain greater international political power by integrating domestic economic policies with foreign policy.<ref>Do Vale, Helder Ferreira &  Costa, Lilian. "State capitalism in a changing global order: Brazil and China’s strategies for greater global influence", Research in Globalization, Volume 9, 2024, 100265, ISSN 2590-051X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2024.100265.</ref> Governments have been utilizing successful national corporations (national champions) to pursue mergers and acquisitions abroad, thereby enhancing their influence in various sectors of the global market.<ref>
Musacchio, A. & Lazzarini, S.G. "Reinventing State Capitalism: Leviathan in Business", Brazil and Beyond
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2014)</ref>

=== People's Republic of China ===
{{Further|Party-state capitalism}}
Many analysts assert that China is one of the main examples of state capitalism in the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pearson |first1=Margaret M. |last2=Rithmire |first2=Meg |last3=Tsai |first3=Kellee S. |date=2022-10-01 |title=China's Party-State Capitalism and International Backlash: From Interdependence to Insecurity |journal=[[International Security]] |language=en |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=135–176 |doi=10.1162/isec_a_00447 |issn=0162-2889 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=The visible hand |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2012/01/21/the-visible-hand |access-date=2022-11-12 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>Do Vale, Helder Ferreira & Costa, Lilian. "State capitalism in a changing global order: Brazil and China’s strategies for greater global influence", Research in Globalization, Volume 9, 2024, 100265, ISSN 2590-051X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2024.100265</ref> In his book ''[[The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations]]'', political scientist [[Ian Bremmer]] describes China as the primary driver for the rise of state capitalism as a challenge to the free market economies of the developed world, particularly in the aftermath of the [[2008 financial crisis]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/439ccee0-bec6-11df-a755-00144feab49a |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210211214/https://www.ft.com/content/439ccee0-bec6-11df-a755-00144feab49a#axzz17YEJxrzO |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription |title=State capitalism: China's 'market-Leninism' has yet to face biggest test |first=Geoff |last=Dyer |work=Financial Times |date=13 September 2010 |access-date=2010-12-08 |url-status=live }}</ref> Bremmer draws a broad definition of state capitalism as such:<ref name=Ferguson>{{Cite news | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/09/we_re_all_state_capitalists_now | title=We're All State Capitalists Now | first=Niall | last=Ferguson | work=Foreign Policy | date=10 February 2012 | access-date=11 March 2017 | archive-date=8 September 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908082613/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/09/we_re_all_state_capitalists_now | url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{Blockquote|In this system, governments use various kinds of state-owned companies to manage the exploitation of resources that they consider the state's crown jewels and to create and maintain large numbers of jobs. They use select privately owned companies to dominate certain economic sectors.

They use so-called sovereign wealth funds to invest their extra cash in ways that maximize the state's profits. In all three cases, the state is using markets to create wealth that can be directed as political officials see fit. And in all three cases, the ultimate motive is not economic (maximizing growth) but political (maximizing the state's power and the leadership's chances of survival). This is a form of capitalism but one in which the state acts as the dominant economic player and uses markets primarily for political gain.}}

Following on Bremmer, Aligica, and Tarko<ref>Aligica, Paul and Vlad Tarko (2012). "State Capitalism and the Rent-SeekingConjecture", ''Constitutional Political Economy ''23(4): 357–379</ref> further develop the theory that state capitalism in countries like modern day China and Russia is an example of a [[rent-seeking]] society. They argue that following the realization that the centrally planned socialist systems could not effectively compete with capitalist economies, formerly Communist Party political elites are trying to engineer a limited form of [[economic liberalization]] that increases efficiency while still allowing them to maintain political control and power.

In his article "We're All State Capitalists Now", British historian and Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at [[Harvard University]] [[Niall Ferguson]] warns against "an unhelpful oversimplification to divide the world into 'market capitalist' and 'state capitalist' camps. The reality is that most countries are arranged along a spectrum where both the intent and the extent of state intervention in the economy vary".<ref name=Ferguson/> He then notes: "The real contest of our time is not between a state-capitalist China and a market-capitalist America, with Europe somewhere in the middle. It is a contest that goes on within all three regions as we all struggle to strike the right balance between the economic institutions that generate wealth and the political institutions that regulate and redistribute it."<ref name=Ferguson/>

In the common program set up by the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]] in 1949, in effect the country's interim constitution, state capitalism meant an economic system of corporatism. It provided as follows: "Whenever necessary and possible, private capital shall be encouraged to develop in the direction of state capitalism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1949-ccp-program.asp|title=Modern History Sourcebook: The Common Program of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, 1949|publisher=Fordham University|access-date=19 January 2019}}</ref>

Analysis of the [[Chinese model]] and the [[socialist market economy]] by the economists Julan Du and Chenggang Xu finds that the contemporary [[Economy of China|economic system of the People's Republic of China]] represents a state capitalist system as opposed to a market socialist system. The reason for this categorization is the existence of [[financial market]]s in the Chinese economic system, which are absent in the market socialist literature and in the classic models of [[market socialism]]; and that state profits are retained by enterprises rather than being equitably distributed among the population in a [[basic income]]/[[social dividend]] or similar scheme, which are major features in the market socialist literature. They conclude that China is neither a form of market socialism nor a stable form of capitalism.<ref name="Market Socialism or Capitalism? Evidence from Chinese Financial Market Development, 2005">''Market Socialism or Capitalism? Evidence from Chinese Financial Market Development'', by Julan Du and Chenggang Xu. 2005. IEA 2005 Round Table on Market and Socialism.</ref>

The [[Government of China|Chinese government]] maintains that these reforms are actually the [[primary stage of socialism]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Poythress|first=Vern S.|date=January 2013|title=An Information-Based Semiotic Analysis of Theories Concerning theories|journal=Semiotica|volume=2013|issue=193|doi=10.1515/sem-2013-0005|issn=1613-3692}}</ref> and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) remains nominally dedicated to establishing a socialist society and subsequently developing into full communism.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hou|first=Qiang|date=19 October 2017|url=http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-10/19/c_136689808.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227203055/http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/19/c_136689808.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 27, 2018|title=CPC creates Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era|agency=Xinhua News Agency|access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref> This was reiterated by [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party]] [[Xi Jinping]] at the [[2023 G20 New Delhi summit]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2024|reason=Previously associated with a citation that predates this event.}}

=== Republic of China (Taiwan) ===
Some Taiwanese economists referred to Taiwan's economic model during the [[Kuomintang]] dictatorship period as [[party-state capitalism]]''.'' During this era, Taiwan's economy had been classified as a state capitalist system influenced by its Leninist model of political control. Today, [[Taiwan's economy]] includes a number of state-owned enterprises, but the state's role in the economy has shifted from that of an entrepreneur to a minority investor in companies alongside the democratization agenda of the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite book |last= Dittmer |first= Lowell |title= Taiwan and China: Fitful Embrace |publisher= University of California Press|year= 2017|isbn= 978-0520295988|page = 118|quote=A decade after Taiwan made its democratic transition, the KMT's Leninist control model has yet to fade from the decision-making process. In short, both China’s and Taiwan's state capitalism have their roots in the Leninist legacy. [...] To be specific, Taiwan's state capitalism has experienced a transformation from 'leviathan as entrepreneur' in the pre-1989 period to 'leviathan as a minority investor' with the agenda of democratization in the late 1980s.}}</ref>

=== Norway ===
According to ''The Economist'', Norway is "embracing state capitalism", as the [[government of Norway]], funded by the government's ownership of the country's oil reserves, has ownership stakes in many of the country's largest publicly listed companies, owning 37% of the [[Oslo Stock Exchange|Oslo stock market]]<ref name=Economist>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21570842-oil-makes-norway-different-rest-region-only-up-point-rich|title=Norway: The rich cousin – Oil makes Norway different from the rest of the region, but only up to a point|date=2 February 2013|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=1 January 2016}}</ref> and operates the country's largest non-listed companies including [[Avinor]] and [[Statkraft]]. There are legal limits however, as the [[Government Pension Fund of Norway]] is not allowed to own more than 15% of any single Norwegian company.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-03-28|title=Investment management|url=https://www.folketrygdfondet.no/investment-management/category378.html|access-date=2022-01-06|website=Folketrygdfondet|language=en|archive-date=2022-01-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106175937/https://www.folketrygdfondet.no/investment-management/category378.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Singapore ===
Singapore has attracted some of the world's most powerful corporations through business-friendly legislation and through the encouragement of Western-style corporatism, with close cooperation between the state and corporations. Singapore's large holdings of government-linked companies and the state's close cooperation with business are defining aspects of the economy of Singapore. Singapore's government owns controlling shares in many government-linked companies and directs investment through [[sovereign wealth fund]]s, an arrangement that has been cited as state capitalism when defined as "system in which the state functions as the leading economic actor and uses markets primarily for political gain".<ref name=Shatkin>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130509074837/http://meridian.aag.org/callforpapers/program/AbstractDetail.cfm?AbstractID=38973 "The True Meaning of the 'Singapore Model': State Capitalism and Urban Planning"], by Shatkin, Gavin. Retrieved October 18, 2012, from Association of American Geographers.</ref> Listed companies in which the government is the controlling shareholder account for 37% of the total stock market capitalization in Singapore.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tan|first1=Cheng Han|last2=Puchniak|first2=Dan W.|last3=Varottil|first3=Umakanth|title=State-Owned Enterprises in Singapore: Historical Insights into a Potential Model for Reform|volume=28 |journal=Columbia Journal of Asian Law |pages=61–97 |year=2015 |ssrn=2580422}}</ref>

===United States ===
During the [[second presidency of Donald Trump]] beginning in 2025, Trump sought an unprecedented amount of control over US business, publicly attacked companies and their executives, demanded firings of corporate leaders who criticized or contradicted him, and demanded cuts of business profits by the federal government.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Aspan|first=Maria|date=August 14, 2025|title=Trump is tightening the screws on corporate America — and CEOs are staying mum|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2025/08/14/nx-s1-5501591/trump-corporate-america-capitalism|access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref> Trump abandoned traditional Republican orthodoxy about protecting and promoting the free market,<ref name="Morrow 08202025">{{Cite news|last1=Morrow|first1=Allison|last2=Mattingly|first2=Phil|date=August 20, 2025|title=Corporate America is silent as Trump abandons free-market principles|work=CNN|url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/20/business/companies-trump-free-market|access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Wiles 08222025">{{Cite news|last=Wile|first=Rob|date=August 22, 2025|title=U.S. takes 10% stake in Intel as Trump flexes more power over big business|work=NBC News|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/intel-agrees-us-stake-in-company-how-much-what-to-know-rcna226667|access-date=August 24, 2025|quote=Trump continues to bulldoze through long-held norms regarding government and business, departing from the free-market ethos that has long prevailed in both major U.S. political parties.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Sutton|first1=Sam|last2=Guida|first2=Victoria|date=August 22, 2025|title=Trump is turning the government into an investment firm|work=Politico|url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money-capital-risk/2025/08/22/trump-is-turning-the-government-into-an-investment-firm-00519364|access-date=August 24, 2025|quote=From tariff carveouts to pro bono legal work from white-shoe law firms, Trump is exerting power over U.S. businesses in ways that go beyond even Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) aspirations. His ability to inject his agenda into private enterprises and dealmaking has shaken the guardrails that protect businesses from sudden political shifts and defied the free-market orthodoxy that was a hallmark of Republican economic policymaking.}}</ref> and sought greater and direct government control over private business which was widely described by academics, economists, commentators, and former corporate CEOs as an embrace of state capitalism.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Keith|last2=Lu|first2=Chritina|date=July 16, 2025|title=Trump Embraces State Capitalism|work=Foreign Policy|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/16/trump-economy-industry-state-capitalism-steel-rare-earth-investment/|url-access=subscription|access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Ip|first=Greg|date=August 11, 2025|title=The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-u-s-marches-toward-state-capitalism-with-american-characteristics-f75cafa8?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAhdzJ3xV7G723iLQyWckFC6lAOGNUgwmtOFb-AuGkUgpPCakJ4kN2xk&gaa_ts=68ab7dc0&gaa_sig=iNS2pp1LbXxEywrxaBCNfQYCH8XESHvl88721zhP-QgoJnExzg1f3fSoNn6jhTVSLBIwVcDp0rDdxEt22sZ73A%3D%3D|url-access=subscription|access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Sonnenfeld|first1=Jeffrey|last2=Pepper|first2=John|date=August 12, 2025|title=Is MAGA going Marxist and Maoist? Trump's assault on free-market capitalism|work=Fortune|url=https://fortune.com/2025/08/12/maga-marxist-maoist-trump-assault-free-market-capitalism-socialism/|access-date=August 25, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Economist 08132025">{{Cite news|date=August 13, 2025|title=Trump wants to command bosses like Xi does. He is failing|work=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/business/2025/08/13/trump-wants-to-command-bosses-like-xi-does-he-is-failing|url-access=subscription|access-date=August 24, 2025|quote=Ignore for a moment Donald Trump's shakedown of Nvidia, in which he has allowed the world's most valuable firm to resume limited exports of its artificial-intelligence (AI) chips to China in return for giving a 15% cut of the proceeds to Uncle Sam.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=|title=Trump is tightening his grip on the economy, taking a page from China|work=CNN|url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/13/business/trump-economy-capitalism-nightcap|access-date=August 24, 2025|quote=Trump's realignment of American business also bears similarities to China's model of "state capitalism" — a mix between socialism and classic free-market capitalism in which the state is involved in, but doesn't directly own, private businesses.}}</ref> 

His demand and agreement with [[NVIDIA]] and [[AMD]] to provide the government with 15% of all overseas chip sales to China were described by critics as a "shakedown" and as potentially illegal and unconstitutional.<ref name="Morrow 08202025"/><ref name="Economist 08132025"/> In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon became the largest shareholder of [[MP Materials]], bypassing US procurement and contracting laws in the process.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Northey|first=Hannah|date=August 18, 2025|title=Trump's mineral megadeal is bypassing US laws|work=E&E News|url=https://www.eenews.net/articles/trumps-mineral-megadeal-is-bypassing-us-laws/|access-date=August 24, 2025|quote=It's an unprecedented, though legally defensible, strategy that invites both risk and reward, said Joel Dodge, director of Industrial Policy & Economic Security at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.}}</ref> As part of an agreement to allow Japan-based [[Nippon Steel]] buy [[US Steel]], Trump was granted a personal, not governmental, [[golden share]] in US Steel, allowing him to influence board decisions and maintain veto power over certain decisions set to expire at the end of his presidential term, after which the Treasury and Commerce Departments would exercise control under all future presidents.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Levy|first=Mark|date=June 25, 2025|title=Trump gets ‘golden share’ power in US Steel buyout. US agencies will get it under future presidents|work=AP News|url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-us-steel-nippon-golden-share-pittsburgh-china-7981a41d2e518fad07c347042f9fdc38|access-date=August 24, 2025}}</ref> [[Intel]] agreed to grant the government a 10% equity stake in its company with no power to influence board decisions "with limited exceptions" in what ''[[NBC News]]'' described as "the president's latest extraordinary move to exert federal government control over private business".<ref name="Wiles 08222025"/> 

Writing for ''[[Columbia Law Review]]'' in 2020, [[Jon D. Michaels]] argued that there existed growing evidence of government market participation in a "[[Postliberalism|postliberal]]" political economy, coining the term "public capitalism" in the United States at the national, state, and local levels.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Michaels |first1=Jon D. |title=Government Market Participation in the Postliberal U.S. Political Economy |journal=Columbia Law Review |date=2020 |volume=120 |issue=2 |page=465 |url=https://columbialawreview.org/content/we-the-shareholders-government-market-participation-in-the-postliberal-u-s-political-economy/ |access-date=26 August 2025}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Authoritarian socialism]]
* [[Chiangism]]
* [[Christian finance]]
* [[Collective capitalism]]
* [[Communist state]]
* [[Constitutional economics]]
* [[Corporate capitalism]]
* [[Corporatization]]
* [[Crony capitalism]]
* [[Developmental state]]
* [[Distributism]]
* [[East Asian model of capitalism]]
* [[Economics of fascism]]
* [[Gaullism]]
* [[Indicative planning]]
* [[List of non-communist socialist states|List of socialist states]]
* [[Mercantilism]]
* [[Mixed economy]]
* [[Ordoliberalism]]
* [[Political capitalism]]
* [[Political economy]]
* [[Preussentum und Sozialismus]]
* [[Reform and opening up]]
* [[Rentier state]]
* [[Rhine capitalism]]
* [[Social market economy]]
* [[State-owned enterprise]]
* [[Statism]]
* [[Tiger Cub Economies]]
* [[Tripartism]]
* [[Types of capitalism]]

{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|25em}}

== Further reading ==
* Guy Ankerl, Beyond [[Monopoly Capitalism]] and Monopoly Socialism. Cambridge MA, Schenkman, 1978, {{ISBN|0-87073-938-7}}
* [[Nikolai Bukharin]], [http://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1917/imperial/ ''Imperialism and World Economy''].
* Gerd Hardach, Dieter Karras and Ben Fine, ''A short history of socialist economic thought.'', pp.&nbsp;63–68.
* Bob Jessop, ''The capitalist state''.
* Charlene Gannage, "E. S. Varga and the Theory of State Monopoly Capitalism", in ''Review of Radical Political Economics'' 12(3), Fall 1980, pages 36–49. 
* Johnn Fairley, ''French Developments in the Theory of State Monopoly Capitalism'', in: ''Science and Society''; 44(3), Fall 1980, pages 305–25. 
* [[Ernest Mandel]], ''Late Capitalism'', pp.&nbsp;515–522.
* Ernest Mandel, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1980/xx/hismatstate.htm ''Historical Materialism and the Capitalist State'']. 
* Paul Boccara et al., ''Le Capitalisme Monopoliste d'Etat''. Paris: Editions Sociales, 1971 (2 vols).
* G. N. Sorvina et al., "The Role of the State in the System of State Monopoly Capitalism", in: ''The Teaching of Political Economy: A Critique of Non Marxian Theories''. Moscow: Progress, 1984, pages 171–179.
* Ben Fine & Laurence Harris, ''Re-reading Capital.''
* Jacques Valier, ''Le Parti Communiste Francais et le Capitalisme Monopoliste D'Etat'', 1976
* Valentin Dyachenko, ''[http://sd-inform.org/upload/books/Theory%20of%20socialism/Neomarksism/vdUtopia_src.pdf Как марксизм из науки превращался в утопию. Размышления о деформации теории Маркса и причинах краха советского проекта. (How Marxism turns from a science into a utopia. Reflections on the deformation of Marx's theory and the causes of the collapse of the Soviet project.)]'' — Москва:, 2015.
* Alexander Ostrovsky, ''[http://www.intelros.ru/pdf/alternativa/2011/04/11.pdf Существовал ли социализм в СССР? (Did socialism exist in the USSR?)]''// Альтернативы № 4, 2011.
* Avenir Solovyov, ''[http://marxist.su/lib/Solovyov.pdf Общественный строй России — вчера, сегодня, завтра (Короткие ответы на острые вопросы) (The social system of Russia — yesterday, today, tomorrow (Short answers to acute questions)).]'' — Кострома: Б. и. 1994.
* Do Vale, Helder F. & Costa, Lilian. "State capitalism in a changing global order: Brazil and China’s strategies for greater global influence", Research in Globalization, Volume 9, 2024, 100265, ISSN 2590-051X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2024.100265.

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Library resources box}}

* [http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/802/CommentKey:1226921 The Economist debate on State and liberal capitalism.]
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1942-dm/index.htm In Defense of Marxism] by [[Leon Trotsky]] – A collection of essays and letters to members of the US Socialist Workers Party from 1939 to 1940.
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-w/1896/08/our-congress.htm Our Recent Congress, ''Justice'' 1896] by [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]]
* [http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload2/what_was_the_ussr_en.pdf What was the USSR?] by {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027134808/http://www.geocities.com/aufheben2 |date=October 27, 2009 |title=Aufheben }}
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1955/statecap/index.htm State Capitalism in Russia] by [[Tony Cliff]]
* [https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/1_1/1_1_7.pdf Toward a Theory of State Capitalism: Ultimate Decision-Making and Class Structure] [[Libertarianism|Libertarian]] analysis by Walter E. Grinder and John Hagel.
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1949/cliff.htm Against the Theory of State Capitalism] by [[Ted Grant]]
* [http://www.workersliberty.org/node/4714 The Russian Question: A debate between Raya Dunayevskaya and Max Shachtman] (May 1947 with August 2005 commentary)
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1917/imperial/index.htm Imperialism and World Economy] by [[Nikolai Bukharin]]
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1936/dictatorship.htm State Capitalism and Dictatorship] by [[Anton Pannekoek]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060526002538/http://www.ernestmandel.org/en/works/txt/FI/theory_of_statecapitalism.htm The Theory of "State Capitalism"], by [[Ernest Mandel]] (June 1951)
* [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9364315 The Marxian Concept of Capital and the Soviet Experience: Essay in the Critique of Political Economy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804223717/https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9364315 |date=2011-08-04 }} by Paresh Chattopadhyay
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071123113937/http://www.geocities.com/youcreatedcosmos/news.html Collection of left-communist links that dismiss the bolshevik state capitalism.]
* [http://marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1946/statecap.htm "The Nature of the Russian Economy"] a 1946 Polemic written by [[Raya Dunayevskaya]] (then writing as Freddie Forest), founder of [[Marxist Humanism]], arguing for a state capitalist position within the [[Marxist]] movement.
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1999/trotism/index.htm "Trotskyism after Trotsky: The origins of the International Socialists"] Summarization of three key points on which Cliff and the International Socialist Tendency deviated from what is traditionally the orthodox Trotskyist position.
* [http://www.clrjamesinstitute.org/statecap.html "C.L.R. James on Marx's Capital and State Capitalism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510062617/http://www.clrjamesinstitute.org/statecap.html |date=2013-05-10 }}
* [http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64948/ian-bremmer/state-capitalism-comes-of-age State Capitalism Comes of Age], ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'', May/June 2009
* [http://www.endofthefreemarket.com The End of The Free Market: Who Wins the War between States and Corporations], by [[Ian Bremmer]], (May 2010)
* [http://monthlyreview.org/100201foster.php The Age of Monopoly-Finance Capital] by [[John Bellamy Foster]], ''[[Monthly Review]]'', February 2010

{{Aspects of capitalism}}
{{Marxist & Communist phraseology}}
{{Socialism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:State Capitalism}}
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[[Category:Capitalism]]
[[Category:Economic systems]]
[[Category:Political terminology]]