Nikos Poulantzas was born in Athens in September 1936. He studied law and social sciences in Athens, Heidelberg and Paris, where he settled since 1961 and worked as professor and director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He became world-renowned for his theoretical contribution to the analysis of the capitalist state, the state of emergency (fascism, fascist dictatorships), social classes, power relations, and socialist strategy. According to the well-known sociologist and political scientist Bob Jesop, Poulantzas was the most important Marxist theorist of the post-war state.
In addition to his work, which became widespread in many countries and especially in Latin America, Poulantzas was actively involved in the left and communist movements of France and Greece (member of the Communist Party of Greece and , after 1968, of the Communist Party of Greece –Interior), constituting his attitude a shining example of an organic left-wing intellectual.
