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Marx's theory of base and superstructure can be found in the disciplines of political science, sociology, anthropology, and psychology as utilized by Marxist scholars. Across these disciplines the base-superstructure relationship, and the contents of each, may take different forms.
G.A. Cohen argues in Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence that a society's superstructure stabilizes or entrenches its economic structure, but that the economic base is primary and the superstructure secondary. That said, it is precisely because the superstructure strongly affects the base that the base selects that superstructure.
Base and superstructure: Marx and Engels use the “base-structure” concept to explain the idea that the totality of relations among people with regard to “the social production of their existence” forms the economic basis, on which arises a superstructure of political and legal institutions. To the base corresponds the social ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 3 February 2025. Economic and sociopolitical worldview For the political ideology commonly associated with states governed by communist parties, see Marxism–Leninism. Karl Marx, after whom Marxism is named. Friedrich Engels, who co-developed Marxism. Marxism is a political philosophy and method of ...
Thus the superstructure stabilizes its economic base, but in the other direction the economic relations determine the character of the superstructure, so that in this sense the economic base is primary and the superstructure secondary. It is precisely because the superstructure strongly affects the base that the base selects that superstructure.
Marx's base and superstructure model is not deterministic, according to Eagleton, as the superstructure is not fully determined by the base, and can also cause the base to change. In Marxism, the class struggle may determine the progression of society, but a class is not just an economic status: it is associated with traditions, values and culture.
In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (German: Produktionsweise, "the way of producing") is a specific combination of the: . Productive forces: these include human labour power and means of production (tools, machinery, factory buildings, infrastructure, technical knowledge, raw materials, plants, animals, exploitable land).
The Marxist spatial metaphor of the edifice describes a social formation constituted by the foundational infrastructure, i.e. the economic base, on which stands the superstructure consisting of two floors: the law/the state (the politico-legal floor) and ideology. A detailed description of both structures is provided below: