This study of the complicated disputes between 1945 and 1970 over the nationalisation of the British steel industry offers original insights into the distribution and exercise of power in a capitalist state. Doug McEachern examines in detail the ways in which the views of different classes and pressure groups in society were reflected in the history of steel nationalisation, and shows that the issue of nationalisation brought out inherent conflicts within the capitalist class. This class opposed the Labour governments' attempts to nationalise steel, but Dr McEachern shows that those attempts were in fact securing, perhaps unwittingly, the interests of capital. In this sense the opposition of capital to nationalisation made it a class arguing against itself, against its own long-term interests.
Dr McEachern uses the nationalisation of steel as a case study to demonstrate the inadequacy of existing concepts of power in the capitalist state. He introduces more effective ways of arguing about power and class interests, demonstrating the role of conflict in ensuring that state policy is closely related to the problems of capital. The importance of an accurate assessment of interests, and of how far events followed those interests, is emphasised.
Unlike most recent studies of either power or the state, Dr McEachern's analysis is based on the sustained assessment of the complex issues involved in a long drawn-out dispute about a policy of real social significance. His book will be of interest to political scientists, economists, sociologists and historians concerned with defining the nature of class interests and power in modern states.
