Marxism Flashcards
What is Base and Superstructure?
Base & Superstructure is:
- Base = infrastructure
- forces and relations of production
- determines society’s relationships & ideas
- Superstructure = the ideas of the ruling class
- Culture
- Institutions
- Political Power Structures
- Roles
- Rituals
- State
- In Marxist theory, human society consists of two parts:*
- The base (infrastructure) comprehends the forces and relations of production. These relations determine society’s other relationships and ideas, which are described as its superstructure.*
- The superstructure of a society includes its culture, institutions, political power structures, roles, rituals, and state.*
How or why is Base and Superstructure used?
- explains the totality of social relations
- explains how humans product and reproduct their social existence
- to form society’s economic base
- The base and superstructure metaphor explains that the totality of social relations in and by which humans product and re-product their social existence, forms a society’s economic base. From this base rises a superstructure of political and legal institutions, i.e., ruling class.*
Where was the concept of Base and Superstructure first cited?
Marx
1867
Das Capital
What are the problems/limitations with Base and Superstructure?
- criticised by contemporary Marxist interpretations
- it should not be fixed but rather considered as a dynamic process
- Contemporary Marxist interpretations criticise this conception of the base–superstructure interaction and examine how each affects and conditions the other. “we have to revalue ‘the base’ away from the notions 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.”*
What is Historical Materialism?
- history provides the answers to the causes of development and change in how humans make their living
- consistituent features of society stem from economic activity
- The historical materialist theory of history dialectically analyses (logically discusses) the underlying causes of societal development and change in the collective ways humans make their living. All constituent features of a society (social classes, political pyramid, ideologies) stem from economic activity, an idea often conveyed with the metaphor of the base and superstructure.*
How or why is Historical Materialism used?
- to study the social conditions of life and their changes
- *
- Historical materialism made it possible for the first time to study with the accuracy of the natural sciences the social conditions of the life of the masses and the changes in these conditions.*
Where was the concept of Historical Materialism first cited?
Marx
1867
Das Capital
What is Ideology?
- set of ideas which constitutes goals/expectations/actions
- *
- An ideology is a set of conscious and/or unconscious ideas which constitute one’s goals, expectations, and actions.*
How or why is Ideology used?
- in the ‘base and superstructure’ model of society
- superstructure = dominant ideology
- In the Marxist economic ‘base and superstructure’ model of society, base denotes the relations of production and modes of production, and superstructure denotes the dominant ideology (religious, legal, political systems).*
What is Ideology often compared to?
- Foucault’s idea of ‘discourse’ (except discourse is too confined to verbal systems)
- *
- Foucault’s ‘episteme’ is too narrow and abstract, not social enough. His ‘discourse’, popular because it covers some of ideology’s terrain with less baggage, but is too confined to verbal systems.*
Where was the concept of Ideology first cited?
Marx
1867
Das Capital
What is Mode of Production?
- A combination of:
- productive forces (e.g. people & tools)
- social and technical relations of production (e.g. property, power, control)
In Marxist theory of Historical Materialism, a Mode of Production is a specific combination of: 1. Productive Forces: these include human labour power and means of production (e.g. tools, equipment, buildings and technologies & knowledge, materials, and improved land). 2. Social and Technical Relations of Production: these include the property, power, and control relations governing society’s productive assets (often codified in law), cooperative work relations and forms of association, relations between people and the objects of their work, and the relations between social classes.
How or why is Mode of Production used?
- Part of Marx’s theory of Historical Materialism
- to describe essential characteristcs of human beings
- to highlight the conflict in the development of human productive capacities
- Marx regarded* 1) productive ability and 2) participation in social relations as two essential characteristics of human beings and that the particular modality of these relations in capitalist production are inherently in conflict with the increasing development of human productive capacities.
Where was the concept of Mode of Production first cited?
Marx
1867
Das Capital
What is Articulation (of modes of production)?
- differences between modes of productions across multiple societies
- *
- In any specific society or country, different modes of production might emerge and exist alongside each other, linked together economically through trade and mutual obligations. To these different modes correspond different social classes and strata in the population.*
