1 The relevance of Luhmann’s systems theory and of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analysis to the elaboration of Marx’s state theory Bob Jessop This on-line version is pre-copyedited, preprint, English version. The published version can be found here: ‘Zur Relevanz von Luhmann’s Systemtheorie und von Laclau und Mouffe`s Diskursanalyse für die Weiterentwicklung der marxistischen Staatstheorie’, in Joachim Hirsch, John Kannankulam, and Jens Wissel eds, Der Staat der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. zum Staatsverständnis von Karl Marx, Baden- Baden: Nomos, 157-179, 2008. Neither Luhmann nor Laclau-Mouffe take the state as their principal theoretical object. Luhmann aimed to develop a universal systems theory in which politics was one among several important functional systems; and Laclau-Mouffe have been more interested in developing an ontology of ‘the political’ than in theorizing the state as a distinct ontic structural ensemble. Indeed, although he later modified this view, Luhmann initially presented the state as no more than the self-description of the political system (contrast 1990a with 2000b: 116-118, 244f, 392).; and, although Laclau and Mouffe each referred to the state in different respects before their joint discourse-analytical turn, they subsequently focused on hegemony and radical democracy. Thus we must explore the relevance of their more general arguments to Marx’s state theory. Marxian State-theoretical Deficits Marx left us no coherent overall statement of materialist state theory. This failure particularly affects, as the editors have noted, ‘die Konzeptionalisierung des Verhältnisses von Politik und Ökonomie, die Problematik der Basis-Überbau- Metapher und die Frage der Berücksichtigung der von Marx entwickelten Formanalyse’ (this volume). Nonetheless he and Engels did leave many elements for building the required theory in four complementary approaches: (1) a form analytical analysis of the capitalist type of state and its formal adequacy for a social formation organised under the dominance of capital accumulation; (2) analyses of the historical