The introductory essay to this volume argued that “bringing the state back in” not only means analyzing states as organizations that may pursue distinctive goals. It also means spelling out the ways in which states influence the meanings and methods of politics for all groups and classes in society. Social cleavages and interests are not, as received wisdom too often implies, primordial givens that affect the state through politics “from without.” Rather, the organizational arrangements of states, the existing patterns of state intervention in economic and social life, and policies already in place all influence the social interests pursued in politics. Some potential group identities are activated; others are not. Some lines of social conflict are politicized; others are not. Some demands are pressed; others are not imagined or are considered inappropriate given the kind of state structure and established policies with which social actors must deal. In turn, these political realities partially affected by the state feed back to affect future struggles over state structures and policies.

These “Tocquevillian” ideas were illustrated in the introduction with the aid of recent literature about political culture, parties, corporatist arrangements, issue agendas, and class formation in the United States and Western Europe. In addition, since the essays in each of the sections of this volume are hardly sealed off analytically from one another, all of the previous chapters have to some degree made use of this perspective on the state in relation to politics and society.