This article is part of ourEconomy's 'Decolonising the economy' series.
State capitalism is back. At least that is what we are told. An avalanche of books and articles have recently argued that the more visible role of the state across the world capitalist economy signals the resurgence of state capitalism. Consider the mass bailouts following the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-2019 pandemic, the expansion of state-owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds, national and regional development banks, the renewal of industrial policy and various forms of economic nationalism in the advanced capitalist economies, and the consolidation of state-led development in China and elsewhere. For many commentators and policymakers, these developments suggest that state capitalism is once again taking center stage in the global political economy.
These narratives of resurgent state capitalism are far from innocent. Consider the front cover of a 2012 special report of The Economist, figuring a picture of Lenin smoking a cigar. In another issue, published two years earlier and dedicated to state-backed Chinese takeovers, the front cover featured a picture of Mao handing over a wad of banknotes (see Fig. 1).
