In this chapter we turn from a critique of other work to a presentation of our own synthetic framework. We translate levels of analysis into levels of power, using different terms to make the relationship clear. (Societal level becomes systemic power, organizational becomes structural, individual becomes situational.) In Chapter 18 we translate types of theories into types of politics. In Chapter 19 we translate tensions within theories into contradictions within the state. We use concepts drawn from each of the theoretical perspective's home domain for a larger theoretical purpose.

In the previous chapters, we have analyzed the internal contradictions of the state as seen in different theoretical perspectives. Consensus versus participation, centralization versus fragmentation, and accumulation versus class struggle reflect the division between functional and political versions of the pluralist, managerial, and class perspectives. In the functional approach, the societal function of the state determines all other levels of analysis. In the political approach, the relations between levels of analysis and institutions are historically contingent and potentially conflictive. Thus, for example, in a political class approach, capitalism and democracy are contradictory, whereas in functional approaches, democracy is subordinate to and functional for the reproduction of capitalism. By rescuing both approaches and integrating all three levels of analysis, we are able, in this chapter, to redefine the powers of theory of the state in society.