The Canadian State is a powerful collection of essays. Leo Panitch's theme essay, dealing with the theories of recent neo-Marxist thinkers such as O'Connor, Miliband, and Poulantzas on the nature and role of the state and sketching their relevance to Canada, sets the tone and interpretation of the whole work, which thus has a rare unity and cohesion. Reg Whitaker and Garth Stevenson provide papers offering profound analyses of the history and functioning...