Social Structure

The mode of the interconnection and combination between social elements, and its essential content is the social relations among men.

Social structure is formed and developed by men on the basis of and in the process of social practice and social intercourse. It is precisely because of people’s mutual intercourse based on social practice that various social relations between people and social structure are formed. In 1859, in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx explained the basic view of social structure of the materialist conception of history. He pointed out: “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.” “The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.”

Social structure includes three basic levels: economic structure, political structure, and cultural structure. The economic structure of society refers to the totality of relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of the productive forces. It essentially reflects the relations of production and economic relations, and it embodies a certain socio-economic system. The economic structure of a society is the bone of the social organism and the basis of all social relations. The economic structure of society embodies the economic relations forged by men in the process of material production and reproduction, which is essentially a material relation, and has an objective nature. The political structure of society refers to the political superstructure of society, which is the totality of political and legal system and institutions established on the basis of the economic foundation. The cultural structure of society refers to the ideological superstructure founded on the economic foundation of a specific society. It is constituted by social ideologies. The cultural structure of society depends on social existence, is a reflection of the economic and political structure of society, has relative independence and has a distinct class nature in class society. The political and cultural structures of society are inextricably linked, and together constitute the immense system of superstructure and are “flesh and blood” of the social organism.

In the fundamental structure of society, the economic, political and cultural structures are complementary and dialectically unified. Where the economic structure is the basis, the political structure is the guarantee, and the cultural structure is the soul. The organic unity of the three constitutes the whole structure of society.