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A
concept from Marxism that refers to the mode of production of a society: the social and
technical organization of its economy. Karl Marx argued that it is upon this base that the
superstructure of the society - its institutions and culture - are built. While the social
institutions and culture of society are shaped by this base, at the same time, they help
to maintain and reproduce the mode of production and may, in certain conditions contribute
to its transformation.
The relationship between superstructure and base is considered
to be a dialectical one, not a distinction between actual entities "in the
world".
'In the social production of the their life, men enter into
definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of
production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material
productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic
structure of society, the real basis, on which rises a legal and political superstructure,
and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness' - K. Marx in the preface
to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.
The superstructure is the set of 'non-economic institutions whose character is explained
by the nature of the economic structure (the base).' - G. A. Cohen Karl Marx's Theory of
History: A Defence pp 216.
The institutions mentioned include the legal, political, moral and ideological aspects of
society.
'Society is not founded upon the law; this is a legal fiction. On the contrary, the law
must be founded upon society, it must express the common interests and needs of
society...which arise from the material mode of production prevailing at the given time.'
- K. Marx from 'Speech at the Trial of the Rhenish District Committee of Democrats'.
The "base-structure" metaphor relates the idea that
the economic relations between people with regard to the means of production forms the
basis for a superstructure of ideas, social, religious and political institutions and
legal frameworks that is ultimately determined by this basis.
The Structure of the Social
Jonathan Joseph, Goldsmith's College, University of London
Simon Kennedy, Goldsmith's College, University of London
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 30, No. 4, 508-527 (2000) © 2000 SAGE
Publications
This article seeks to develop the Marxist conception of social structure by incorporating
developments within critical realist philosophy. It rejects forms of economic determinism
such as the base-superstructure model and those reconstructions–like
Cohen's–that attribute primacy to productive forces in explaining history and
society. It argues instead that society is the product of complex, often contradictory
combinations of many different structures and mechanisms. They form a structural ensemble,
hierarchically arranged, but where each element has its own dynamics and emergent powers.
It concludes that society is best understood through critical realist conceptions of
stratification, emergence, transformation, and overdetermination. -
pos.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/4/508 |
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