Development of the productive forces and the relations of production
- The
productive forces determine the development of the relations of production.
A contradiction arises
and intensifies between the constantly growing productive forces and the relatively stable relations of production.
The contradiction is resolved through a replacement of the old relations of production with new ones, which
correspond to the grown productive forces.
The relations of production have an active influence
on the development of the productive forces: new ones accelerate, and obsolete ones obstruct their development.
Types and forms of production relations
Whatever
the social form of production, laborers and means of production always remain factors of it. For production to go on
at all they must unite the different specific manner in which this union is accomplished distinguishes the different economic
epochs of the structure of society form one another.
Mode of unification of the producer with the means of production.
Elements of the society's social structure
The
totality of classes, social strata and groups and the system of their interrelations constitute the society's social structure.
The social structure of a class society is based on classes, which exert a decisive influence on the behavior of the other
social groups. With a change of the mode of production, the society's social structure changes as well:
- Social
groups/classes/
- Large (on the scale of the society as a whole)/
- Ethnic communities/Tribes/Nationalities/Nations/Social
Strata
Medium (local)/Territorial communities: the inhabitants of a village, town, or region; Production associations
of persons working at one and the same enterprise, Small Family
Special purpose groups: educational, sports, etc.
Primary production units/Production associations of persons working at one and the same enterprise
Human populations,
whether they are white, black, brown, yellow, or red, in skin color must organize themselves around those means of production
and as a direct material result become a personification of their place in production history. Production, distribution,
exchange, and consumption are essentially human administered stages in the provision of life's necessities to populations
within the society whose size, complexity and composition require a system of allocating different amounts to different social
groups.
As a indirect result, each mode of production
since communalism is dominated by a strata, a class, of society who in the natural evolution of the formation seized control
of the means of production, garnered an economic monopoly on the formation's surplus and, thus, organized the society
in their own image in accordance with their particular unique place in production history.
Classes
Classes are a personification
of their place in production history---a human reflex of productive instrumentation, and accordingly either own the means
of production in all subsequent class societies, administer it, or are owned in some form or to some degree. Even the
ruling ideas, the ideology which is distributed through the mass communication apparatus, are the ideas of the ruling class.
In sum, the basis of all social relations are those connections and relations which come to be in the process of production
of some material unit for human use and exchange.
Classes are big groups of people differing from one another
in:
- place in a historically definite system of social relation
- relation to the means of production
- role
in the social organization of labor
- share of the social wealth they receive and the ways in which they acquire it
Classes
are groups of people, one of which can appropriate the labor of another owing to the different places they occupy in a definite
system of social economy.
What type of technological system do most people in the society use? - Hunting
& Gathering
- Herding Animals
- Hoe cultivation
- Agrarian
- Industrial
- Computer Automated
Machine Production (STR) High Technology
|
What are the most important resources in the society?
| Wild Animal & Wild Plants | Factories and Machines | | Domesticated
Animals | Computers | | Farm
Land | Money | | Mineral
Resources | Labor, Other? |
|
Who owns or controls the most
important resources in the society? - Community
- Individuals, Private Companies
- Clan/Lineage
- State
- Ruler, Rich Families, Kings, Queens, Capitalists, Socialists, Communists, Fascists,
Military, Priests
|
How are most items produced? How is most surplus produced?
| Community labor system | Caste labor system | | Clan/Lineage
labor system | Chattel slave labor system | | Tributary labor system | Wage labor system | | Ancient slave labor system | Reciprocal labor
system |
|
How is most surplus distributed? - Via Community
- Via
Clan/ Lineage
- Via Ruler/Rich families
|
Which is the most powerful group in the society? - Elders
- Clan/Lineage
- Dominant
Class Rulers/Priests/Rich Families/
- Rich Individuals/Private Companies
- State Officials/Other
|
What is the major type of decision-making in the society? Form of Government?
| Direct Democracy | Parliamentary Republic | | Limited Democracy | Presidential Republic | | Representative
Democracy | Absolute Monarchy | | Oligarchy/Dictatorship/Other | |
|
How are most conflicts resolved? - Avoidance/Co-existence
- Cooperation/Negotiation
- Arbitration
- Protest
- Property
Raids
- Limited War (Kidnappings, Hostage Taking
- Terrorism, Assassinations, Representative Combat)
- Large-scale
War/ Other
|
What ideology does the decision-making group use to justify its economic policies? - Reciprocity
- Personal
Initiative
- Male Privilege
- Divine Right, Survival of the Most Fit, Intelligence, Bell Curves
- Race/Ethnic
Privilege
- Meritocracy/Other
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