Material Conditions and Social Revolution: A Marxist Analysis of Economic and Social Formations
Material Conditions
The set of conditions that allow anything to happen. For Marx, the triggers of all processes are ultimately socio-economic conditions. Hence, “material conditions” are comparable to “economic conditions” or “social conditions.” This is the basic thesis of historical materialism: to explain the existence, disappearance, or change of any social reality from the material conditions that make it possible.
Economic Policy
A discipline that emerged in the eighteenth century, aimed at the new socio-economic and political order in industrialized countries. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776) is considered the origin of political economy as a science. Smith argued that wealth originates from reducing labor costs by increasing the output of the same amount of work. This increase is achieved by improving the ways in which we work. Secondly, the State should abstain from intervention in the economy, thus preventing free competition, the origin of development.
David Ricardo (1772-1823) was disturbed by the trend of falling profits, which he believed could be offset by foreign trade. Adam Smith had proposed a solution: manufactured exports becoming cheaper, achieved through a greater division of labor. Ricardo proposed the importation of cheap grain to prevent the rise of wages. Marx criticized these solutions.
Social Revolution
A period when the development of productive forces leads to conflict with the relations of production, which until then had led its development. This period is characterized by the confrontation of the new productive forces with the legal system (property relations) that guarantees the hitherto dominant production relations. The new productive forces and the legal system are defended by different social classes. The class struggle becomes more acute until the oppressed classes are able to seize political power and destroy the old relations of production. This conscious process also leads to the violent destruction of the class defending those relationships.
Overall Development of the Human Spirit
The actions of the mind in its attempt to implement its ideal. Legal relations, civil society, and various forms of state are realizations of the spirit in its quest to find its ideal.
Economic Social Formation
The set of elements that make up a society at a particular historical moment. While the mode of production is a pure concept, a social formation has a real existence and is therefore not a pure structure. Every social formation is the result of the combination, at a historical moment, of several modes of production. In every social formation there appears:
- A complex economic structure with coexisting various relations of production, one of which is dominant.
- A complex ideological structure formed by various ideological tendencies, in which one dominates.
- A complex legal and political superstructure that allows the ruling class domination.
Forms of State
For Hegel, the State is one of the three manifestations of the evolution of the human spirit when it goes beyond the individual and relates to others. The state arises to organize, plan, and manage the economic relations that make up civil society. It is a rationalizing principle that prevents market distortions and ensures that all basic needs are met. It is a “protective father” of the “universal family,” which is civil society. As one of the latest manifestations of the evolution of the human spirit in its attempt to implement its ideals, the State is one of the most complete expressions of reason. The state can be organized in various ways (republic, monarchy, etc.), so there are different “forms” of State.
Productive Forces
The elements that allow work to be done. They consist of the workforce (human energy used) and the means of labor (the instruments directly or indirectly used to transform nature into a product; for example, tools, workshops, etc.).
Prehistory of Human Society
The period in which social formations dominated by antagonistic modes of production have existed. These are modes of production in which social relations are exploiter-exploited, and therefore where there is a division of society into two opposing and warring classes: the owners of the means of production (material and labor resources, tools) and the non-owners. Therefore, the production of what it takes to live in these societies has an “antagonistic” form. Thus, the prehistory of society is the succession of continuing strife generated by material contradictions and causing the fall of modes of production and the domination of others.
Social Production of Existence
The process by which man, through his workforce, has produced a product to meet his needs. Thus, man, through his work, produced “indirectly” his own life; he “gives life.” When man works, he establishes relationships with other men and the means used. Therefore, the production of existence is not individual but social.
Bourgeois Relations of Production
The production relationships of modern bourgeois society. These relations are characterized by techniques that require a large number of indirect workers, and because the machine-driven job breaks down the worker and leads to an environmental unit (machine) with matter. This causes the worker to become dependent on the machine, and skilled workers are no longer needed because the worker simply controls the machine. Social relations are exploiter-exploited between the employee and the owner, who obtains the surplus.
Relations of Production
The working relationship established between those involved in the work process (social), and these workers with the means of production (technical relations). These relationships are characterized by:
- They are determined; they are not capricious, but the consequence of how they work, the type of media used, and who owns them.
- They are necessary: man needs to work for a living but cannot work without means and therefore must relate to the means (technical relations). In many cases, man does not have those means and has to interact with those who hire him or, if an owner, with those he contracts.
- They are independent of the will of man: it is not man who decides how he works, but the means employed and their owners.
- They correspond to the degree of development of the material forces of production (materials, tools, etc.) without which men cannot work.
Ownership Relations
A set of laws and rules that legally ensure the social relations of production. Therefore, they are part of the legal structure. The social classes that benefit from these social relations are responsible for ensuring that such laws and regulations remain in place to protect their ownership.
Legal Relations
Relations regulated and guaranteed by the legal system of a State. These relationships between people are always established (natural or legal) and consist in establishing a link between them concerning rights, powers, or obligations. A purchase agreement is a legal relationship whereby the vendor and the State recognize the buyer’s right of ownership of that object. Hegel analyzes legal relations, which are the first expression of the objective spirit, in the first part of his Philosophy of Right. He argues that these particular relationships allow the freedom of the spirit through the possession of property. By contrast, for Marx, legal relations, far from being an expression of the free spirit, express and legitimize social relations of production.
Civil Society
For Hegel, civil society is one of the three manifestations of the evolution of the human spirit when it moves beyond individuality and relates to others. In the family, men unite freely, cooperate in their work, and express their feelings and affections. Trust, sacrifice, and love underlie family relationships. Civil society is the bond established between families, based not on trust, sacrifice, or love, but on the mutual satisfaction of needs. The link is established between families when they realize they are needed and dependent upon each other, learning to recognize each other as equals. Civil society, therefore, does not arise from the nature of man but from the agreement to improve their living conditions. Within civil society, there is a specialization of labor that gives rise to social classes. That is why civil society needs a new reality to plan, manage, and ensure freedom: the state. For Marx, civil society is the area of conflict between social classes. It arises not from cooperation, but from exploitation. It is rooted not in the spirit, but in the material needs of men.
Superstructure
A group formed by the legal and political structures and the ideology of a society. It is determined by its economic structure.