The chapter looks at how certain activities and related tensions have developed within the state with regards to decent work. It argues that attention needs to be paid to analysing the changing role of the state across four dimensions: how the state operates across boundaries; how different forms of regulation co-evolve; how the state sustains and builds on crisis moments in terms of the changing nature of its roles; and finally, how the state is able to sustain itself and its relative autonomy within a context of extreme political challenges. While the state remains important and has been innovative in various ways, it has begun to diversify its roles and relations –and to some extent fragment. © Jason Heyes, Janine Leschke, Kirsty Newsome, Michael Reich and Adrian Wilkinson 2025.