Drug testing and social control: Implications for state theory

Using the example of the "war on drugs" started in the US in 1986 & the subsequent contention that mandatory drug testing of workers be enacted, an aspect of Fred Block's version of state theory (Revising State Theory: Essays in Politics and Postindustrialism, Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 1987) is challenged. It is suggested that his zero-sum assumption in the relationship between state managers & capitalists is not valid in this instance. The essential argument is that drug testing gives power to state managers over the general population by expanding the state apparatus; & at the same time, it gives power to capitalists by enabling them to create a new form of social control over workers. Due to the prevalence of situations that expand the power of both state managers & capitalists, it is contended that Block's theory needs revision. D. Dennis