This was Hilferding's criticism of the theory of state or bureaucratic capitalism, that the relatively harmless bureaucrats were not in control but subordinate to Stalin (and Hitler) in a system of totalitarian state economy. But there are still questions of how and why bureaucrats, somewhat distant from the consequences of their actions, acceded to the demands of dictators. This raises the question of the cipher-like nature of the bureaucratic personality, a question taken up by Weber, the Frankfurt School and Zygmunt Bauman (Modernity and the Holocaust).
Jim, I must warn you that Jurriaan stopped but you have kept on going on. I don't want to have put you on ignore for some time. You are clearly responsible for the degeneration of the conversation :) Oh yes, I am wondering what our moderator has to say about the crucial role of violence or forcible accumulation in the American slave colonies and by the East India company in the secret history of capitalism (see Amiya Bagchi, Joseph Inikori, John M. Hobson, Kenneth Pomeranz) . I'll have to check his book. History is all the rage nowadays.
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