The pluralist perspective on the contemporary capitalist aspect of the state does not, for reasons that should be clear by now, use the language of class, of capitalism, and frequently not even of the state. But the relations between business and government are seen as of critical importance nonetheless.

It is important to emphasize at the outset that pluralists can empirically recognize capitalists, but they are seen as representing individual economic interests. When the term “capitalist” is used, it could be redefined as “businessman” in the sense of an occupation, with a gain of theoretical clarity. “Business” is a generic category, covering multiple differences or similarities of economic interests. Similarly, the term “worker” or even “labor” may be used, but this signifies an individual social location with multiple and sometimes loosely intercorrelated attributes such as occupational prestige, income, and education. Where these individual attributes intercorrelate and are labeled a “class,” the meaning is still not within the class perspective if the latent world view is not one of capital-labor relations within a mode of production.

The way in which class relations are absorbed into a pluralist world view is exemplified (among many examples that could be chosen) by this theoretical point from a seven-nation survey of “participation and political equality.”