saying, 'A genius in the business office may be, and often is, utterly unable outside of it to say boo to a goose - both in the drawing room and on the platform. Knowing this he wants to be left alone and to leave politics alone' (4). The state will still act in the interests of the ruling class, even when the bourgeoisie takes a step back from active political life. Under this 'abdication' theory, the state can have a degree of political autonomy from the bourgeoisie, but only to the extent to which the ruling class allows it to have autonomy. The state still acts in the best interests of the dominant class. Marx's historical study, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, is the example used by Elster to create his 'class-balance' theory of the state. In examining the rise to power of Louis Bonaparte, Marx claims that 'the state built itself up into an apparently independent force' (5). This is because in the rise of the Bonapartist regime, there was a balance of power between the classes in France, with none being politically dominant. The state, in the form of Louis Bonaparte was then able to have a high degree of autonomous power. It can be seen, however, that his regime still acted in the interests of capital. This can be explained by the fact that the Bonapartists were given power by the votes of the petit bourgeoisie, and in order to protect their voter's interests, protected private