Economic Formation of Society

Also known as “Economic Social Formation”. In Marx’s and Lenin’s works, there are two situations in which this concept is used. One refers to the economic structure of society or the economic foundation of society as the sum total of the relations of production. For example, Lenin said that Marx established the concept of the economic formation of society as the sum-total of given relations of production. In this sense, the economic formation of society is a part or a level that constitutes a social formation. Another is that, because the social formation is the unity of economic foundation and superstructure, in which the economic foundation determines the superstructure, and the superstructure has to be appropriate to the economic foundation, sometimes the concept of “economic formation of society” also refers to the whole social formation including superstructure, i.e., it is used interchangeably with “social formation” in the same sense.