We can now summarize our argument, utilizing concepts drawn from all three perspectives. An adequate framework for an explanation of state actions, state structures, and the state's function in society cannot be derived from any one of the three classic theoretical perspectives.

Historical relations of capitalism, the state, and democracy

The institutional separation of capitalism, the state, and democracy furthered the development of each. Capitalist development was facilitated by a nation-state that guaranteed property rights. The requirements of capitalist accumulation were more likely to be assured by institutional separation than if the state were captured by specific industrial or class interests. Also, the inequalities created by the capitalist economy were concealed by the formal rights of all citizens to buy and sell all factors of production, including land and labor. The population was symbolically integrated by the emerging rights of citizenship, which established a form of universal equality – the adult franchise – as a substitute for the economic equality denied by capitalism.

Similarly, the expansion of the bureaucratic state was made possible by its institutional separation from the capitalist economy. Mass political participation could be limited to attempts to influence state actions, if the state had a considerable degree of autonomy, thereby propelling its expansion. And state autonomy allowed capitalists to use their political power to compensate for their growing inability to reproduce the commodity form through the market alone. State expansion was an alternative to politicization of the capitalist system itself.