Base and superstructure

The mode of production, i.e., the productive forces (see) and the system of economic relations corresponding to them form the economic base or foundation of society out of which arises the social superstructure—political institutions and forms of social consciousness such as morality, science, religion, philosophy, and the like. “Whatever is the being of a society, whatever are the conditions of material life of a society, such are the ideas, theories, political views, and political institutions of that society.” (Stalin, Dialectical and Historical Materialism, p. 21.) But the superstructure, directly or indirectly determined by the economic base, is not, as the vulgar economists think, merely a passive effect of the play of economic factors, and these economic forces by no means represent the only active factors in the evolution of society. On the contrary, the superstructure in its turn exercises an active influence on the base, expediting or delaying the process of social evolution.