State capitalism substitutes the power motive for the profit motive

Evidence

What perhaps distinguished it most strongly from earlier capitalist phases, Pollock argued, was its subordination of individual or group profits to the needs of the general plan. Social relations consisted no longer of the interaction of employer and employee, or producer and consumer through the mediation of the market. Instead, individuals confronted one another as commander and commanded. Although not completely lost, “the profit motive,” Pollock argued, had been “superseded by the power motive.” 50 One reflection of this, he continued in a way reminiscent of James Burnham, was the loss of control by stockholders over management. The traditional capitalists were becoming little more than rentiers living off diminished profits. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 485

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to Burnham’s The Managerial Revolution and forecasts concerns about managerial/technocratic capitalism. — connects to: Monopoly capitalism replaces liberal-legal institutions with irrational totalitarian authority — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 402; The Institute viewed the Soviet economy as a variant of state capitalism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 483; State-capitalism theory downgrades the economic base in favor of direct political domination — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 600 (+8 more)
• DEFINE: Defines what distinguishes Pollock’s state capitalism from earlier Marxist categories of monopoly or finance capital.

Broader Connections

• State-capitalism theory downgrades the economic base in favor of direct political domination #corroborates (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 600
• Totalitarian power operates independently of material interest and profit motives #corroborates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 938
• Pollock’s state capitalism theory erased class antagonisms in favor of purely political rulers #corroborates (0.72) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 599