Still the Return of the State? Critical Issues and possible new Research Avenues

Abstract

En los últimos años, precisamente entre la crisis financiera mundial y la pandemia de Covid-19, el tema del “retorno del Estado” ha resurgido con frecuencia y bajo diferentes formas. Algunos autores, por ejemplo, hablan del regreso del “neoestatismo” sobre las ruinas de la ideología neoliberal (Gerbaudo, 2022), otros del “posneoliberalismo” (Cooper, 2021; Davies y Gane, 2021), mientras que instituciones internacionales como el Fondo Monetario Internacional han recomendado recientemente (es decir, en el periodo de la pandemia) una intervención a gran escala de las autoridades nacionales para hacer frente a los efectos de la pandemia. En este ensayo discutimos críticamente la cuestión del retorno del Estado evaluando los puntos fuertes y débiles de esta literatura. En particular, nos centramos en la necesidad de —en primer lugar— enmarcar teóricamente el Estado, y en particular el Estado neoliberal, y —en segundo lugar— fomentar una visión alternativa de la elaboración de políticas que tenga en cuenta la relativa autonomía de los poderes del Estado en la gestión del conflicto social al tiempo que se promueven los intereses de clase. En las conclusiones, al tiempo que se reafirma la centralidad del análisis del Estado, se discuten algunas posibles líneas de investigación
capaces de captar las continuidades y los cambios a nivel estatal.

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