Not sure I follow. Significant parts of the left see the institutions of the state as a means to the realization of democracy. Take, for instance, most socialis

Not sure I follow. Significant parts of the left see the institutions of the state as a means to the realization of democracy. Take, for instance, most socialist, social-democratic, or Left parties in contemporary Europe. They advocate for the state to take an active role in making space for democracy (for instance by legislating codetermination in the workplace) and de-commodifying labor to protect the working classes from capital. True, many leftists -- especially those in the communist and anarchist left -- have the long-term goal of abolishing the state, but that doesn't mean the institutions of the state cannot play a role in advancing some of the goals of the left in the interim. Even Nikolai Bukharin did not deny this. That's what the author is arguing here -- that the state should not be ruled out tout court as a potential site of engagement for those seeking to realize the promises of radical democracy. The author is not saying that state already is the realization of democracy, as your paraphrase suggests.