ECONOMIC SUPERSTRUCTURE: ELEMENTS, EXAMPLES - ECONOMY - 2026

The economic superstructure is one of the two theoretical parts developed by Karl Marx, which are those that make up capitalist society. The other part is the substructure or economic base.

The base refers to the forces and relations of production, such as the technical division of labor, property relations, employer-employee working conditions, the roles they play, as well as the resources involved in the production of the things that the company needs. society.

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The economic superstructure refers to all other aspects of society. It includes culture, values ​​and beliefs, norms, social institutions (education, religion, media, family), as well as the political structure of the State, which is the political apparatus that governs society.

Although the relationship of the two parties is not strictly one-way, since the economic superstructure often affects the base, the influence of the base is predominant.

Marx claimed that the superstructure arises and grows out of the base, thus reflecting the interests of the ruling class that controls it. As such, the superstructure justifies how the base works and, in doing so, justifies the power of the ruling class.

Elements

From a sociological point of view it is important to recognize that the base and the superstructure do not occur naturally and are not static.

Both are social creations, created by people in a society, and both are the accumulation of social processes and interactions between people, which are constantly developing, changing and evolving.

Historically, the superstructure varies and also develops unevenly in the different activities of society; for example, art, politics, economics, etc.

The base-superstructure relationship is reciprocal. Engels explains that only ultimately does the base determine the superstructure.

- Base components

Social aspects

- The law of value.

- Human beings, in addition to their social presence.

- The society-nature dialectic.

- The obstruction between the production time and the life time. The economy captures and translates this tension.

- The practice. Especially work.

- The interaction of man with others.

- Economic elements

- The relations between the product and the worker, and also between production and the worker.

- Work time and extra labor over and above the imperative.

- Necessary work time and indispensable task.

- Components of the superstructure

Power relationships

- The forms of government.

- The right.

- Politics.

Institutional elements

- Institutions that certify the distribution of wealth.

- Bureaucracy.

- The state.

- Institutions that are in charge of social governance.

Integrative components of different forms of ideology

- Canonized art.

- Philosophies.

- Traditions.

- Habits and customs.

Axiological elements

- Moral systems.

- Religions.

Representations

- Time and death.

- The soul.

- The money.

- The gods.

- Components common to the base and the superstructure

- The language.

- The so-called "internal goods", such as creativity, will, intelligence, etc.

- Technique and science.

- The education.

- The means of transport and communication.

- The artistic forms that activate internal goods.

Examples

Marx's theory of the base and superstructure can be found in the disciplines of political science, sociology, anthropology, and psychology used by Marxist scholars.

Across these disciplines, the base-superstructure relationship and the contents of each can take different forms.

Marx and literature

Marx defines the base as the social relations between men who produce materials and which are eventually put up for sale. From the base a superstructure arises where laws, politics, religion and literature legitimize the power of the social classes that are formed at the base.

So, for Marx, art and literature are a superstructure of society. Marx points out that there is an "unequal relationship" between art and society.

Therefore, this means that a more developed and productive society does not have a high level of artistic achievement. It refers to the Greeks as a society where the epic was created, but the economic development was lacking.

Marx also claims that the superstructure has its own rhythm of development, which cannot be reduced to a mere expression of the class struggle or the state of the economy.

Despite this point of view, Marx also asserts that art is determined by a mode of production.

Sexual economy

Wilhelm Reich's Freudo-Marxist discipline of analysis, known as sexual economy, is an attempt to understand the perceived divergence of base and superstructure, which occurred during the world economic crisis of 1929 to 1933.

To make sense of this phenomenon, Reich recategorized social ideology as an element at the base, not the superstructure.

In this new categorization, social ideology and social psychology are self-perpetuating material processes, in the same way that economic systems at the bottom perpetuate themselves.

Reich focused on the role of sexual repression in the patriarchal family system as a way of understanding how massive support for fascism could emerge in a society.

Legality

A critique of base and superstructure economic theory is that property relations, which are supposedly part of the base and driving force of history, are actually defined by legal relations, which is an element of the superstructure..

Neoliberalism and the State

Colin Jenkins offers a critique of the role of the capitalist state in the era of neoliberalism, using the theory of the base and the superstructure.

Regarding development in the United States during this era (1980-2015), Jenkins highlights the nature in which political parties and the political system as such are designed to protect the economic base of capitalism. Thus, in doing so they have become increasingly centralized and coordinated over the past half century.

According to Jenkins, this has led to a corporate-fascist mood that challenges the balance of this fragile relationship. His analysis specifically addresses the role of the two main parties, Democrat and Republican, in the United States.

In addition to differences in social issues like abortion and gay marriage, as well as socioeconomic issues like unemployment insurance and public assistance, both parties finally embrace the capitalist / corporate interest.

Both serve as facilitators for the ruling classes: the Republican Party pushing the limits of the capitalist model to the brink of fascism, and the Democratic Party providing intermittent degrees of slack and pressure against this inevitable move toward a corporate-fascist mood.

References

1. Nicki Lisa Cole (2019). Definition of Base and Superstructure. ThoughtCo. Taken from: thoughtco.com.
2. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2019). Base and superstructure. Taken from: en.wikipedia.org.
3. Urpe (2017). The Productive Base as the Ground of Society and History: Marx's Base-Superstructure Theory. Taken from: urpe.wordpress.com.
4. Edgardo Adrián López (2019). The Shadows of Marx. Eumed. Taken from: eumed.net.
5. Michael Lewers (2015). Base and Superstructure. Georgetown University. Taken from: blogs.commons.georgetown.edu.