Sociology  Essays

Offe designates four universal features common to all states in advanced capitalist societies. Does the Australian state meet these criteria?

    The German Marxist thinker, Claus Offe (1975), proposes that all states in advanced capitalist societies can be characterised by four principles or criteria, namely the principles of exclusion, dependence, maintenance and legitimation. This essay will examine whether the Australian state does meet Offe's criteria by first defining Offe's four principles and the concept of the state as well as establishing whether the Australian state can be considered a state in an advanced capitalist society, and then providing answers to this question which are illustrated with examples from the literature. This will lead to the thesis that, because the Australian state contradicts the universality of Offe's principles, states in advanced capitalist societies cannot be universally characterised by Offe's principles of exclusion, dependence, maintenance and legitimation.
© 1997 Deakin University

Click here to read full essay  (55kb) |

All Essays | Search Google