Nicos Poulantzas, Greek-French sociologist and philosopher (b. 1936)
Nicos Poulantzas (Greek: Νίκος Πουλαντζάς [ˈnikos pulanˈd͡zas]; 21 September 1936 – 3 October 1979) was a Greek-French Marxist political sociologist and philosopher. In the 1970s, Poulantzas was known, along with Louis Althusser, as a leading Structural Marxist and, while at first a Leninist, he eventually became a proponent of democratic socialism. He is best known for his theoretical work on the state, but he also offered Marxist contributions to the analysis of fascism, social class in the contemporary world, and the collapse of dictatorships in Southern Europe in the 1970s (such as Franco's rule in Spain, Salazar's in Portugal, and Papadopoulos' in Greece).