Alien Politics retrieves from the writings of Marx an original theory of the state which remains viable and relevant today. Paul Thomas traces the process by which Marx's theory of the state as the instrument of the capitalist ruling class became transformed into communist dogma under the auspices of Lenin and other official' Marxist stalwarts. He argues that Marx's writings still have something to teach us and should not be pulled down with the monoliths and mausoleums of communism. The book continues the work of Western Marxist' thinkers such as Antonia Gramsci and Nicos Poulantzas who came to understand the modern state in terms different from the rightly-discredited ruling class' theory of the state associated with Leninism. Such Western Marxist theorists - more careful and nuanced readers of Marx than their powerfully placed antagonists - formulated a theory of what Thomas calls alien politics'. The theory of alien politics, originally elaborted by Marx in his early critiques of Hegel and the Young Hegelians, diverges from ruling class state theory because it is an epiphenomenon of civil society. Unlike ruling class theory, alien politics retains considerable relevance as a critique of state froms that still exist in the West as well as those that have collapsed in the East. This topical and groundbreaking book re-interprets Marx and demonstrates how his ideas remain critical for political theorists, social scientists and anyone interested in the modern state.

Engels declared at Marx's funeral in Highgate Cemetery that "just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history". Scientific socialism was the term Engels used to describe Marx's socio-economic philosophy and many later theorists sought to reinforce Marxist theory with a supposedly scientific basis. This book explains the development of the idea of scientific socialism through the 19th and 20th century from its origins in Engels to its last manifestation in the work of Althusser.It provides a detailed analysis of Engel's own conceptualisation, the impact of Darwin, the relationship to the 'official' historical materialism of the Soviet states and later reformulations by Althusser and others. In so doing it provides a vivid intellectual history of Marxist and socialist thought, exploring its significant insights as well its manifest failures. "Marxism and Scientific Socialism" will be of particular interest to those with an interest in the development of Marxism and socialism, political ideologies and the history of Western political thought.