Claus Offe and the Critical Theory of the Capitalist State

Jens Borchert and Stephan Lessenichcritically combine a reconstruction Claus Offe¿s approach to state theory, deemed the most important contribution to Western state theory of the last decades, with an analysis of the current constellation of democratic capitalism based on that same theory. In doing so, they expertly argue that his relational approach to state theory is much better equipped analytically to grasp the contradictory dynamics of the financial crisis and its political regulation than competing contributions. This is why systematically revisiting the theory of "late capitalism" is not only of a historical concern, but constitutes an essential contribution to a political sociology of our time.