 Well, my dear students, the course is Labour Policy Pakistan and the topic is Role of State in Constructing Socialism. Dear students, in the 19th century, the philosophy of state socialism was first explicitly expounded by the German political philosopher Ferdinand Lassel. Dear students, in contrast to Karl Marx's perspective of the state, Lassel rejected the concept of the state as a class-based power structure whose main function was to preserve existing class structure. Dear students, Lassel, the philosopher also rejected the Marxist view that the state was destined to wither away. Dear students, Lassel considered the state to be an entity independent of class allegiances and an instrument of justice that would therefore be essential for achieving socialism. Now, question arises what is meant by the term wither away. It means to cause to fade and the word allegiance means commitment or adherence. Dear students, preceding the Bolshevik-led revolution in Russia, many socialists including reformist, orthodox, Marxist, such as consul, communism, anarchist and Librarian socialists criticized the idea of using the state to conduct central planning and own the means of production as a way to establish socialism. Dear students, following the victory of Lenin in Russia, the idea of state socialism spread rapidly throughout the socialist movement and eventually state socialism came to be identified with the Soviet economic model. Now, question arises what is meant by the term orthodox. It means following or conforming to the traditional or generally accepted rules or beliefs of a religion, philosophy or practice. Dear students, another philosopher, Joseph Schumpeter, rejected the association of socialism and social ownership with state ownership over the means of production because the state as it exists in its current form is a product of capitalistic society and cannot be transplanted to a different institutional framework. The philosopher Schumpeter also argued that there would be different institutions within socialism than those that exist within modern capitalism just as feudalism had its own distinct and unique institutional forms. The state along with concepts like property and taxation were concepts exclusive to commercial society and attempting to place them within the context of a future socialist society would amount to a distortion of these concepts by using them out of context. Hope you have understood the topic. Thank you very much indeed.