Against the "Adjectival State": A Response to the Comments

Our remit was to initiate a discussion on the idea of the state in recent political sociology/state theory. We would first like to thank both the journal's editors for their invitation and those who took the time and trouble to write a commentary: Mitchell Dean, Bob Jessop, and Grahame Thompson. These responses have been diverse and we shall briefly pick out the main points from each commentary before turning to our response. ... How to respond? Since it is too late for retractions and too early for auto-critique, we have no option but to press on with the argument. At the same time, we are aware that much of our argument is not yet "ausgereift" (ripened) and we shall not pretend otherwise. Given that it is Bob Jessop who has made the most fundamental criticisms – the others being broadly sympathetic to the argument, though not necessarily satisfied with all its formulations – there is the obvious temptation to gear the response to a rebuttal of his criticisms, but we can balance this by drawing on what Mitchell Dean and Grahame Thompson have said in order to clarify the argument.