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Base And Superstructure: Difference between revisions
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{{marxism}} | |||
__NOTOC__ | |||
'''Base''' and '''Superstructure''' are the economic and political constituent elements of the synthetic conceptual-pair that is explicitly ''and'' implicitly common to every form of Socialism. As theoretically used by [[Karl Marx]], and philosophically used in [[Marxism]], this politico-economic ''concept'' distinguishes the essential bases of [[social orders]], from other, formative, persisting social conditions. | |||
'''Base''' and '''Superstructure''' | |||
==Exposition== | |||
[[Dialectical Materialism]] posits that the '''economic base''' (the [[mode of production]] and the [[social order]] enforcing it) and the '''political superstructure''' (the State and its political system) are based upon the [[means of production]] (historic circumstance and material conditions of production). In developing [[Alexis de Tocqueville]]’s observations, Marx identifies the [[civil society#Modern history|civil society]] as the ''economic base'' and the [[political society]] as the ''political superstructure''; to wit, critical theory and like writings concern ''how'' each affects ''and'' conditions the other. | |||
<ref name="zaleski">{{cite journal | |||
| last = Zaleski | |||
| first = Pawel | |||
| authorlink = | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| title = Tocqueville on Civilian Society. A Romantic Vision of the Dichotomic Structure of Social Reality | |||
| journal = Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte | |||
| volume = 50 | |||
| issue = | |||
| pages = | |||
| publisher = Felix Meiner Verlag | |||
| location = | |||
| year = 2008 | |||
| url = | |||
| issn = | |||
| doi = | |||
| id = | |||
| accessdate = }} | |||
</ref> | |||
< | In the Preface to ''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'' (1859), Karl Marx says: <ref>{{cite book | last = Marx | first = Karl | authorlink = Karl Marx | coauthors = | title = A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy | publisher = Progress Publishers |date=1977 | location = Moscow | pages = | url = http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = }}</ref> | ||
</ | {{Cquote|In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter Into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely [the] [[relations of production]] appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of [[society]], the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political [[superstructure]], and to which correspond definite forms of [[political consciousness|consciousness]]. The [[mode of production]] of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material [[productive forces]] of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or — this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms — with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development, of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social [[revolution]]. The changes in the economic foundation lead, sooner or later, to the transformation of the whole, immense, superstructure. In studying such transformations, it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic, or philosophic — in short, [[ideological]] forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. Just as one does not judge an [[individual]] by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of production and the relations of production. <ref>Marx, Karl (1977). ''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy''. Moscow: Progress Publishers: Notes by R. Rojas.</ref>|20px|20px}} | ||
In ''Studying Popular Music'' (1990), the musicologist [[Richard Middleton (musicologist)|Richard Middleton]] says that in [[Antonio Gramsci]]’s [[cultural hegemony]] theory the '''political superstructure''' is related to, yet not determined by, the elements that the '''economic base''' comprehends in its [[articulation (sociology)|articulation]]; despite ready simplification, Marx’s '''base determines superstructure''' axiom requires qualification: | |||
#the '''base''' is the whole of productive relationships, not only a given economic element, e.g. the working class; | |||
#historically, the '''superstructure''' varies and develops unevenly in society’s different activites, i.e. Art, politics, economics, etc.; | |||
#the '''base–superstructure''' relationship is ''reciprocal''; per Engels: Base determines superstructure only in the last instance. <ref>''Dictionary of the Social Sciences'', “Base and superstructure” entry.</ref> | |||
Contemporary Marxist interpretation criticises said base–superstructure interaction theories, especially [[Raymond Williams]]’s arguments against loose, “popular” usages of ''base'' and ''superstructure'' as discrete entities, which are not the intention of Marx and Engels, to wit: | |||
{{Cquote|So, we have to say that when we talk of ‘the base’, we are talking of a process, and not a state [. . . .] We have to revalue ‘superstructure’ towards a related range of cultural practices, and away from a reflected, reproduced, or specifically-dependent content. And, crucially, we have to revalue ‘the base’ away from [the] notion[s] of [either] a fixed economic or [a] technological abstraction, and towards the specific activities of men in real, social and economic relationships, containing fundamental contradictions and variations, and, therefore, always in a state of dynamic process. <ref> {{cite journal|title = Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory|journal=[[New Left Review]]|date=November-December 1973|first=Raymond|last=Williams|coauthors=|volume=|issue=82|pages=|id= |url=|format=|accessdate=2007-12-08 }}</ref> | |||
|20px|20px}} | |||
== See also == | |||
== See | |||
* [[Althusser]] | * [[Althusser]] | ||
* [[Classical Marxism]] | |||
* [[Dialectical Materialism]] | * [[Dialectical Materialism]] | ||
* [[False consciousness]] | |||
* [[Historical Materialism]] | * [[Historical Materialism]] | ||
* [[Materialism]] | * [[Materialism]] | ||
* [[Reification]] | * [[Reification]] | ||
== | ==Further Reading== | ||
* Calhoun, Craig (ed), ''Dictionary of the Social Sciences'' Oxford University Press (2002) | |||
==External links== | |||
# [http://www.politisches-woerterbuch.de/index.php?title=Basis_und_%C3%9Cberbau Basis und Überbau] A German Political Lexicon Wiki. | # [http://www.politisches-woerterbuch.de/index.php?title=Basis_und_%C3%9Cberbau Basis und Überbau] A German Political Lexicon Wiki. | ||
# [http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism02.html Marxist Media Theory] | # [http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism02.html Marxist Media Theory] | ||
==Notes== | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
[[Category:Marxist theory]] | |||
[[Category:Structuralism]] | |||
[[cs:Základna a nadstavba]] | |||
[[de:Basis und Überbau]] | |||
[[es:Infraestructura y superestructura]] | |||
[[fr:Infrastructure et superstructure]] | |||
[[ja:上部構造]] | |||
[[ru:Исторический материализм#Основные принципы и понятия]] | |||
[[zh:上层建筑]] | |||
