Hitherto, the dynamics of social change in Fiji has been understood primarily in racial terms. This study seeks to provide an alternative interpretation. An historical-materialist analysis of the origins and development of capitalism in Fiji, it advances the argument that the strongest tendential forces which shaped the trajectory of change were class forces and, more importantly, class conflict came to assume a racial form. Because the state is integral to the capital relation, it serves as the thread around which my analysis of the class struggle in Fiji revolves. The theoretical principles which inform the study are derived from the Marxist theory of the state. But there are various strands to that theory, and that which has been most influential in the recent attempts to come to grips with the state in Third World societies is the Poulantzian one. But Poulantzas's theory is flawed, and this study seeks not only to demonstrate this but also to suggest an alternative. Hopefully, therefore, the theoretical arguments developed here will represent a modest contribution to a more adequate understanding of the state and the dynamics of capitalist development not only in Fiji but in capitalist Third World societies generally.