Key Concepts in Marxist Theory: A Comprehensive Analysis

Era of Social Revolution

The era of social revolution is a period that opens when the development of productive forces leads to conflict with the relations of production, which until then had facilitated 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.

Status

A state is a political institution that is not subject to any other political institution; that is to say, it has sovereignty. It should possess a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government. For Marx, it is the culmination of the legal and political superstructure of any society dominated by social relations of exploiter-exploited. Its function is to maintain the dominant position of the exploiting class, to defend their property, and control the other classes, even with force. Thus, the state has a monopoly on legitimate violence. Through the state, the dominant economic class also becomes politically dominant, thus acquiring new means to exploit. Precisely because of the role it plays after the dictatorship of the proletariat, when the social confrontation disappears, this structure will have no function. Hegel’s vision of the State, as opposed to the Marxist view, is questioned in forms of state.

Social Relations of Production

Social relations of production are the relationships established between individuals at work, based on the type of property that has a relation with the means of production (raw material and tools). These relations divide the agents into workers who own the means of production and non-owners who have to work for the former. There are two types of social relationships:

• A] Exploiter-exploited relationships: when the owners receive the gains from the work of non-owners. These exist in the relations of slavery, servitude, and capitalism.
• B] Partnerships of mutual aid: there is social ownership of the means of production, so any kind of exploitation is absent. These are found in primitive communities and in communist societies.

Technical Relations of Production

Technical relations of production are the ways in which those involved in the work process interact and control the means of work (when work begins and ends, hours of rest, what is done with the product, etc.). These relations divide workers into direct (those who directly manipulate the means) and non-direct (those involved in the organization, supervision, and control).

Material Conditions (Infrastructure)

Material conditions are the set of conditions that make something possible. For Marx, the triggers of all processes are ultimately socio-economic conditions. Material conditions can be economic or social. 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 Social Formation

Economic social formation is the set of phenomena and social processes (economic, ideological, ethnic, family, etc.) established in a particular historical context of human economic relations of production. The development of society is determined by the transition from one socio-economic formation to another more perfect one. With the creation of historical materialism, Marx and Engels tried to prove that those who truly make history are the masses, the workers.

Economic Structure (Infrastructure)

Economic structure is a set of relations of production (technical and social) in which its basic principle is the form of ownership, that is, the relationship of men with the means of production. Together with the productive forces (objects of labor, means of labor, and labor power), it is the area responsible for producing what is necessary to safeguard the lives of its members and is the foundation that explains the other elements of society: the ideological structure and the legal and political superstructure.

Ideological Structure

Ideology is related to the ideological structure of a society or an individual’s consciousness. Marx calls ideology the interpretation of reality proposed by Hegelian philosophy and, generally, any consideration that forgets the socio-economic reality in which man lives, which is the decisive factor in his consciousness. Ideology defends the idea that ideas change the world, generating reality. The world is changed only by action.

Productive Forces

Productive forces are the elements that allow work to be done. They consist of the labor force and the means of labor.

Material Productive Forces

Material productive forces are the material elements involved in the work: the raw material, labor, and means. They refer to the means of production.

Real Base (Material Conditions)

Real base (material conditions) is an expression that refers to the economic structure. Based on this structure, it is the foundation of the social fabric and the element that explains the other structures. The real base states that this structure is the very stuff of society’s configuration. The remaining elements of society are consequences, derived forms. Thus, laws or the production system consolidate securities.

Capital

Capital is one of the three factors that structure modern bourgeois society. It consists of buildings, machinery, or facilities that produce goods for consumption. Capital is the element that allows the existence of a capitalist bourgeoisie. It is characteristic of the capitalist economic system because this tends not to produce goods, but capital. A company can only survive by being competitive. To do this, it must reinvest its profits (gains) in new machines, that is, new capital. This new capital may be financial capital, capital goods, or capital means of production.

Conscience (Ideology)

Conscience (ideology) is the articulated set of ideas, beliefs, etc., of every man in every historical moment, which serves to explain their place in society and its operation. The men of the same social class share the same consciousness. The ultimate goal of consciousness is to justify the kind of life that each man leads. As the economic structure of society determines and explains the superstructure, the social reality of men determines their consciousness.