Economic basis and political and ideological superstructure of society. Variety of bases and superstructures

Production relations between people, conditioned by a certain level of development of the material productive forces of society and determining its structure. This concept was introduced into economic theory by K. Marx. It is not shared by representatives of other schools of economic thought.

Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001.

See what "Economic Basis" is in other dictionaries:

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1) base of the column; 2) in general, a base, foot, pedestal; 3) operational base - part of the terrain in the rear of the active army, serving as its support; reserves, provisions, supplies, etc. are collected in it; 4) accurately measured straight line for... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

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BASIS, basis, husband. (Greek basis base, pedestal). 1. Same as 1-digit base. (archit.). Column base. 2. only units. Same as base in 2 digits. (book). To provide a basis for something: (to firmly substantiate something, to confirm something... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

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- (base/superstructure) The base is understood as the economic basis of society, and the superstructure is social and ideological relations based on the base. This topographical relationship, attributed to Marx, caused great... ... Political science. Dictionary.

Books

The theory of social wealth. Foundations of micro- and macroeconomics: Textbook, Sorokin Alexander Vladimirovich. The course "Theory of Social Wealth" is included in the curriculum of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov and has been reading since 2007 in the second year of undergraduate and graduate studies. Structure…

Base and superstructure

In a socio-economic formation there are two main components - the base and the superstructure. The basis is the economy of society, the components of which are productive forces and production relations. The superstructure is the state, political and public institutions. Changes in the economic basis lead to the transition from one socio-economic formation to another.

According to the social statics of K. Marx, the basis of society is entirely economic. It represents the dialectical unity of productive forces and production relations.

The superstructure includes ideology, culture, art, education, science, politics, religion, family.

Productive forces are those forces with the help of which society influences nature and changes it. In addition, productive forces can be characterized as one of the aspects of the development of a social individual.

Productive forces express man's relationship with nature, his ability to creatively use its wealth for personal and social interests. Productive forces exist and function only within social production. The level of development of production forces is manifested in the degree of human knowledge of the laws of nature and their use in production to achieve set goals.

Each method of production is based on a certain material and technical basis and the type of labor corresponding to this basis. History knows three types of labor: manual, machine, automated. These types of labor historically correspond to very specific types of society: pre-industrial, industrial, post-industrial (information).

The concept of productive forces and productive relations

Productive forces

During the production process, people interact with nature and with each other. These two types of relations constitute inextricably linked aspects of any specific mode of production, which is expressed in the existence of productive forces and production relations. The mode of production is defined as a contradictory unity of productive forces and production relations. Productive forces constitute the content of the mode of production, and production relations constitute its form.

Productive forces include all factors that determine the level of labor productivity: these are all subjective (personal) and material (substantial) elements of the labor process, as well as their interaction in the production of material goods. These include, first of all, man, as the main productive force with his labor experience, level of education and qualifications, as well as means of labor and objects of labor. The productive forces also include science in its technological application, the socialization of production through the division of labor, cooperation, specialization, as well as the organization and management of production arising from them. Natural resources and natural forces only become productive forces when, thanks to human labor, they become elements of social production.

Thus, the productive forces cover the entire complex of different, interdependent and constantly developing elements that perform a specific function in the production process.

The basis of any system of productive forces is human labor, the subject of labor and the means of labor.

Labor power is the totality of physical and spiritual abilities that the organism, the living personality of a person, possesses, and which it puts into action whenever it produces any use value (items that can satisfy certain needs). The use of labor power as a conscious and purposeful activity is called labor. It can only act in interaction with the means of labor and objects of labor. The latter, therefore, become productive forces only when they are covered by human labor.

Production relations are organizational forms, primarily relations of ownership of the means of production

Production relations (property relations) are not entirely material. Property relations are partly legal relations. The phenomenon of property is hardly possible if people do not implicitly possess the concept of property. Thus, if people do not have the concept of politeness, then raising your hat does not mean greeting an acquaintance. Likewise, taking someone's bicycle does not mean stealing it if people have, among other things, no concept of property. We cannot separate understanding as a component of the superstructure from the base: without a certain understanding and a certain motivation there is no economy. Consequently, the dialectical whole is more fundamental than the rigid division into a material base and a passive superstructure.

We have already said that Marx considered the basis, the economy, as the decisive driving force of history. Let us express this idea more precisely. The real driving force is the productive forces. But the interaction between man and nature, which is mediated by productive forces, occurs within a certain organizational form (form of ownership). Up to a certain point, the productive forces develop freely, or at least without resistance, within the existing relations of production. But sooner or later, production relations begin to slow down the further growth of the productive forces. As a result, tension arises between them: prevailing property relations impede the further development of productive forces. The changes that have arisen in the productive forces urgently require new and more appropriate production relations. A revolution is happening. After the establishment of new relations of production, the productive forces develop until these relations of production again begin to limit them. A new revolution is taking place.

In other words, the productive forces are developing. Conflicts arise between them and the prevailing relations of production. Tensions are resolved by the emergence of new and better industrial relations.

formational marx class history

Base and superstructure are the main concepts of social philosophy according to Marx. These concepts give a fairly clear picture of the structure socio-economic formations. It was these two concepts from his philosophy that made it possible to establish a significant connection and types of mutual dependence of economic and ideological types of relations, taking into account their joint patterns of development.

Marx's definitions

The basis is the primary type of economic structure of society, which represents a community of production relations determined by the historical background.

Marx refers to the superstructure as a set of several types of ideological relations and ideas or views and organizations and institutions responsible for their support and development, such as the state, churches, parties, etc. Superstructural ideas include the following types of views:

political;
legal;
moral;
aesthetic;
religious;
philosophical.

According to the “forms of social consciousness” described by Marx in his philosophy, the basis should be changing character, must change based on the historical background, including the development of the forces of production. Significant changes in the quality of the economic social system, and therefore in the base, also change the superstructure.

However, changes, according to Marx’s concepts, do not occur immediately, but after several links that connect them to each other. For example, philosophy is related to the basis through morality, politics and law. The superstructure has a relatively independent level of development, which, depending on the circumstances, may be slightly ahead of the base in development or slightly behind it.

Superstructure

The add-on is capable of performing significant for the development of society functions. These include, for example, the expression and consolidation of the economic type of property relations provided to society initially using certain norms and institutions related to law and politics. However, in each society there are elements of the superstructure that are capable of destroy the basis that gave birth to it. Result: the superstructure actively influences the base.

Marx's version of the concept of interaction between base and superstructure was one of the very first attempts to analyze society from the point of view of a complex system. On the other hand, it was an extremely simplified way to generalize the materialist solution. It was this conceptual scheme that caused a wave of criticism from Marx’s opponents for the attitude of economic materialism.

Materialistic understanding of human history

The basis of the materialist views on historical events, which were formulated by Marx, is recognition of factors, influencing the level of production, leading. In other words, these factors will be placed above the processes of development and change in public consciousness.

From this perspective, all historical processes will develop as a consistent and natural change of formations of a social and economic nature. As a rule, they lead to the development of production forces and improvement of production methods.

Marx gave the brief assessment described above of the essence of historical materialism in the introduction to "Capital", however, he came to these conclusions much earlier. During the last years of his life and after Marx's death, Engels collected all his ideas together, systematized them and presented them in his work entitled "Anti-Dühring" and some of the works that followed.

The concept of a mode of production necessarily includes a superstructure, which is represented by the political, ideological and legal institutions of society.

The meaning of socio-economic formations makes it possible to separate what is common in the established orders of different countries of the world, which are at the same level of development according to the historical background. In this way, it is possible to apply general scientific criteria of repeatability in the process of historical research, to approach excavations with the aim of understanding the objective laws of society and the processes of its development.

Each of the socio-economic formations is unique "social organism". Its specificity can be determined by considering the material relations of production, which are the basis of the formation.

The basis plays the role of a kind "economic skeleton" in a social organism, the superstructure is "flesh and blood" .

The basis is material production, which is formed through a combination of production forces - masses of workers And production means, which they use – and production relations(social relations that necessarily arise in the production process). So the basis is the basis and root cause for every process that, at least theoretically, has the opportunity to occur in society. According to their role in the production process, in any formation two conditional classes can be distinguished: representatives of the first are the workers producing the goods or services, and the owners of the means involved in production.

Unlike the base, the superstructure is a set of several types of relationships that determine feelings, mood, views, ideas, theories, which in a generalized form reveal the general picture of the psychology and ideology of society. Here is a short list of them:

List of socio-economic formations

The growth in the level of forces of production and struggle of the classes mentioned above provokes the passage of society through certain formations, which include:

Primitive communism or primitive communal structure. The economic development bar is at a low level. The tools used by people are primitive. Property is collective. The production of surplus product is impossible, as is class division. Labor is for everyone, the means of production are common.
Asian type production. During the later stages of the existence of the primitive system, the level of established production increased so much that it became possible to create a surplus product. Communities began to unite into larger entities and create a network with centralized management. From the representatives of this network, over time, a group of people responsible for the implementation of management emerged, who were engaged only in this. In the process of development of production, this group became isolated, began to appropriate some material benefits and create privileges. This led to the emergence of private property and social inequality. Opportunities and even benefits arose for the transition to a slave system. The management institution is becoming more and more complex and is gradually moving into the state. At the same time, the existence of the Asian type of production as a separate formation has never been generally recognized. This topic has been much discussed and mentioned in some of the works of Engels and Marx, but is still unofficial.
Slave system. In the traditions of Marxism, it is customary to name formations by the name of the most progressive class. That is why this formation is called not slave, but slaveholding. At this stage, quite clearly defined private property acquired with the means of production arises. A separate slave class is directly involved in labor. These people are deprived of their freedom, they are the property of slave owners, who consider them nothing more than a talking tool. Slaves work hard, but do not have their own property. Their owners are only involved in organizing production and appropriating the results of the labor of their slaves. The main mechanism that motivates people to work is fear and coercion. In case of disobedience, slaves were severely punished.
Feudal system. Society begins to look at the earth differently. A class of feudal lords is formed who own the land. There was also a class of peasants who were dependent on them. The main type of production is agricultural. It is carried out exclusively by the labor of peasants who are exploited by the feudal lords. This type of society is characterized by a class social structure. The main mechanism that encourages people to work is serfdom and economically formalized coercion.
Capitalist system. A universal right to classify the means of production as private property arises. A class of capitalists, or bourgeoisie (possessing the means of production) and the proletariat, who did not own the means of production and who worked for the capitalists, appeared in society. The capitalists organized the production process and appropriated the surplus product that the workers produced. The main incentive to work is still economic circumstances. Workers who are unable to live without working were forced to arrange their lives on the wages they received for their work.
Socialist system. At the end of the political struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, it was formed throughout the world. The division into classes has not disappeared anywhere, so the reason for the existence of the state remains. The means of production are transferred from private ownership to state ownership. The productive forces are not developed enough to satisfy all needs. Commodity-money relations were preserved, as was economic coercion to work. The socialist system strives to realize the goal of developing the productive forces until class division disappears. Thanks to such changes, states will not be needed, commodity-money relations will disappear, there will be no economic coercion, as well as other features of a commodity society. Both Marx and Engels did not assign a separate formation to the socialist system. The concepts of socialism and communism were synonymous. Their task was to designate the society that emerged after capitalism.

This article briefly outlined the concepts of superstructure and base, which were derived by Marx and later structured by Engels.

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The political superstructure, like the entire political process, is the result of the socio-economic forces that shape it. Its center is a set of power structures, primarily the state, together with a legal political ideology designed to justify and protect it.

The political superstructure does not exhaust the entire superstructure over the base. The superstructure includes a set of forms of social consciousness, ideology, politics and the corresponding political and other institutions of society.

The political superstructure over the new economy, over monopoly capitalism (imperialism is monopoly capitalism) is the turn from democracy to political reaction. Free competition corresponds to democracy. Monopoly corresponds to political reaction.

Considering further the area of the political superstructure, Marx and Engels specifically highlight the question of the relationship of the state and law to property. Here they for the first time scientifically reveal the essence of the state in general and the essence of the bourgeois state in particular. The state, write Marx and Engels, is the form in which individuals belonging to the ruling class realize their common interests and in which the entire civil society (that is, economic relations) of a given era finds its concentrated expression. The bourgeois state is nothing more than a form of political organization that the bourgeois must inevitably adopt in order - both externally and internally - to mutually guarantee their property and mutual interests. German ideology has already shown that the emergence of the state is the result of the division of society into classes and that therefore, with the destruction of classes as a result of the communist revolution, the state itself will disappear.

On the question of the relationship between the political superstructure and the base, N. I. Bukharin proceeds from Lenin’s position: politics is a concentrated expression of the economy (see: Lenin V. I. Poli.

The state as the main form of the political superstructure is studied by legal and other sciences. Political economy views the state as an effective economic force generated by the basis. At the same time, the study of economic relations between people is possible only taking into account the influence of the state on the economic basis. Marx repeatedly pointed out that the range of problems of political economy included the influence of the state on production relations.

A republic is one of the possible forms of political superstructure over capitalist society and, moreover, the most democratic under modern conditions. To say: the republic does not smile at imperialism means to say that there is a contradiction between imperialism and democracy.

Much attention in German ideology is paid to the political superstructure, and especially to the relationship of the state and law to property. Here for the first time the essence of the state in general and the bourgeois state in particular was revealed.

The state enters society as an important element of the political superstructure, but is not part of civil society.

Studying imperialism, V.I. Lenin showed that the political superstructure over monopoly capitalism is political reaction in all areas of domestic and foreign policy; imperialism, Lenin pointed out, is the denial of democracy in general (see Works, 5th ed. Monopoly capitalism curtails and nullifies even the norms of formal bourgeois democracy; it establishes its own unlimited dictatorship. This is especially clearly seen in the example of the USA, where democratic organizations are persecuted, terror against the working class and all progressive forces, political and racial discrimination.

This is a contradiction between the economic system and the political superstructure. The republic has the same contradiction with imperialism, deepened or aggravated by the fact that the replacement of free competition by monopoly makes the exercise of all political freedoms even more difficult.

We must take into account, comrades, that the role of the political superstructure in a socialist society is truly enormous. Nowhere does the political superstructure play such a role as in our country. And its settlement, bringing it into line with today’s possibilities of life, our today’s tasks, is of decisive importance.

Changes in the economic structure of modern capitalism and various kinds of shifts in the political superstructure of capitalism are accompanied by new social phenomena.

BASIS AND SUPERSTRUCTURE

and superstructure, concepts of historical materialism, denoting the social relations of a historically defined society as an integral system in which material relations represent its real basis, the foundation of society, and political and ideological relations represent the superstructure that grows on this basis and is conditioned by it. The basis of society is a set of historically determined relations of production. The superstructure is the totality of ideological attitudes, views and institutions; it includes the state and law, as well as morality, religion, philosophy, art, political and legal forms of consciousness and corresponding institutions. “In the social production of their lives,” Marx wrote, “people enter into certain, necessary, relations independent of their will - production relations that correspond to a certain stage of development of their material productive forces. The totality of these production relations constitutes the economic structure of society, the real basis , on which the legal and political superstructure rises and to which certain forms of social consciousness correspond" (Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 13, pp. 6-7).

The historical change in the basis is caused and conditioned by a change in the nature of the productive forces of society. A historically defined basis determines the character, type of social superstructure. A revolution in the economic system of a given society causes a change, a revolution in the entire social superstructure.

In class society B. and n. are of a class nature. Due to the antagonistic nature of the basis of such formations as slavery, feudalism, capitalism, this antagonism is also reflected in the superstructure itself (the existence of ideologies and organizations that express and defend the interests of various classes and social groups). The process of the emergence and development of social ideas is complex and often contradictory; these ideas, as well as the institutions corresponding to them, do not come into being as an automatic reflex of the base, the economy. Economics does not create philosophical, religious, moral, aesthetic or political ideas. Ideas and institutions (like economic relations themselves) are created by people. But they create these social ideas not arbitrarily, but in accordance with existing social, primarily economic, conditions (i.e. the basis) and social laws. There is relative independence in the development of social ideas. A break with traditions, norms, and dominant ideas occurs among the advanced classes under the influence of social conditions, contradictions, and class struggle. Only in the final analysis are philosophical, aesthetic, moral, religious and other ideas determined by the economic basis. And their emergence and change are directly influenced by previous ideas, as well as the ideological and political struggle of classes and parties.

Communication B. and N. is dialectical in nature. Once it has arisen on a certain basis, the superstructure has the opposite and, moreover, powerful impact on the basis and development of society as a whole. In this interaction, the determining role is ultimately played by the basis (see F. Engels, ibid., vol. 37, pp. 394-95). At the same time, various elements of the superstructure are unequally connected with the base and are influenced by it and, in turn, influence it directly (for example, politics) or more indirectly (for example, philosophy). The reverse impact of the superstructure is of a different nature. F. Engels, characterizing the role of the state as a political superstructure, wrote: “The reverse effect of state power on economic development can be of three kinds. It can act in the same direction - then things go faster; it can act against economic development - then at the present time for every large nation it collapses after a certain period of time; or it can pose obstacles to economic development in certain directions and push it in other directions. This case ultimately comes down to one of the previous ones. However, it is clear that in the second and third. In cases, political power can cause the greatest harm to economic development and can cause the waste of forces and material in massive quantities" (ibid., p. 417). What is said here about the role of the state can be said about the role of the superstructure as a whole. The superstructure thus always plays an active role in society.

The superstructure of society as a whole lives for one era. However, due to a number of historical conditions, trends in the lag of social consciousness from social existence, uneven development of individual parts of the superstructure, as well as due to some common features inherent in all antagonistic formations, some ideological forms, social ideas and institutions survive the era in which they arose, and exist in subsequent social formations. During the transition from one social formation to another, respectively, when changing one B. and n. other B. and N. are destroyed, the revolutionary forces liquidate the reactionary basis and elements of the superstructure. And, on the contrary, everything great and advanced in the field of spiritual culture, morality and art is preserved, which creates continuity in the historical development of society. At the same time, some elements of the superstructure may exist as relics.

Concepts of B. and N. serve as a methodological prerequisite for the analysis of any specific society. However, these categories themselves do not contain qualitative characteristics of certain B. and N. In addition, it should be taken into account that “... the same economic basis - the same from the side of the basic conditions - thanks to the infinitely diverse empirical circumstances, natural conditions, racial relations, historical influences acting from without, etc. - can discover in its manifestation endless variations and gradations, which can only be understood through the analysis of these empirically given circumstances" (K. Marx, ibid., vol. 25, part 2, p. 354). The same diversity can be found in the superstructure within the same formation. The specific nature of B. and n. is established as a result of their concrete study by historical materialism and other social sciences.

Lit.: Kammari M.D., What is the basis and superstructure of society, M., 1957; For the creative study and development of the theory of base and superstructure, "Communist", 1957, | 4; Fundamentals of Marxist philosophy, 2nd ed., M., 1963; Kelle V., Kovalzon M., Course of historical materialism, M., 1969.

F.V. Konstantinov.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB. 2012