Superstructure

Category of historical materialism corresponding to the economic foundation, refers to the legal and political system, organization, institutions and social ideology established on a certain economic foundation. Marx figuratively compared the structure of society to an edifice, and regarded the relations of production, i.e., the economic structure, as the economic foundation of this edifice, and correspondingly the political and ideological and cultural structures of society as the superstructure of the edifice.

The category of superstructure was gradually formed in the process of founding of historical materialism by Marx and Engels.  In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels for the first time formally used the concept of superstructure: Civil society is the social organization evolving directly out of production and commerce, which in all ages forms the basis of the State and of the rest of the idealistic superstructure. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx once again used the concept of superstructure: Upon the different forms of property, upon the social conditions of existence, rises an entire superstructure of distinct and peculiarly formed sentiments, illusions, modes of thought, and outlooks on life. The entire class creates and forms them out of its material foundations and out of the corresponding social relations. The main reference here is to the idealistic superstructure. In Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx made a clear formulation of the category pair of economic foundation and superstructure at the same time: “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.”

The superstructure is an immense and complex system, and includes the political superstructure and the idealistic superstructure (or called ideological superstructure). The political superstructure is the political and legal system, as well as the state machinery and political organizations such as the army, the police, the courts, the prisons, the state apparatus and the political parties, which are established by people on the basis of a certain economic foundation. The political superstructure is a reflection the interests of the ruling class and belongs to the social relations of ideas. It is formed through people’s consciousness in accordance with the requirements of the economic foundation. The idealistic superstructure is the social ideology which corresponds to the economic foundation, including political and juridical ideas, literature and art, morality, philosophy, religion etc. Whether a certain social consciousness belongs to the superstructure of society depends on whether it reflects the requirements of a specific economic foundation. The specific political superstructure and idealistic superstructure are interconnected and conditioned by each other, constituting a unified whole. The idealistic superstructure provides the ideological-theoretical ground for the political superstructure, and the political superstructure provides an important guarantee for the dissemination and implementation of the idealistic superstructure. As the “material appendage” of ideas, the political superstructure is established in accordance with a certain ideological system, which, once formed, intensively acts on the idealistic superstructure and requires a certain idealistic superstructure to which it corresponds. The idealistic superstructure necessarily serves the political superstructure. Both are determined by the economic foundation, and both reflect the interests of the ruling class and have class nature. State power is the core of the superstructure, as it determines the nature of the entire superstructure.

Superstructure and economic foundation are a relation of unity of opposites. On the one hand, the superstructure is determined by the economic foundation. The superstructure is a reflection of the economic foundation. The emergence of the superstructure is an objective requirement of the economic foundation, and the economically ruling class will inevitably establish a political superstructure centered on state power and develop its own class ideology to serve the economic foundation and maintain the interests of the class. The nature of the superstructure is determined by the nature of the economic foundation. The revolutions in the superstructure is caused by the changes in the economic foundation. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure. On the other hand, the superstructure, once it has arisen, has a relative independence and can dynamically react upon the economic foundation. Engels pointed out that the economic situation is the basis, but the various elements of the superstructure—political forms of the class struggle and its results, to wit: constitutions established by the victorious class after a successful battle, etc., juridical forms, and even the reflexes of all these actual struggles in the brains of the participants, political, juristic, philosophical theories, religious views and their further development into systems of dogmas—also exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggles and in many cases preponderate in determining their form… The economic preconditions and conditions are ultimately decisive. But the political ones, etc., and indeed even the traditions which haunt human minds also play a part, although not the decisive one. Between the superstructure and its economic foundation there are two circumstances, correspondence or non-correspondence; its reaction manifests itself as two distinct situations, a lever and a fetter. The nature of the effect of the superstructure on the development of society depends on the nature of the economic foundation it serves. The superstructure and the economic foundation interact with each other on the basis that the economic foundation plays, in the last instance, the determining part, and the interaction constitutes a contradictory movement. It is the basic law of development of society that the superstructure has to correspond to the state of the economic foundation.

Superstructure and economic foundation are important categories put forth by Marx and Engels in order to reveal the essence and laws of development of human society, they have important practical significance for grasping the essence and laws of development of socialist society.