Base and superstructure

From MarxWiki

The base/superstructure model is a theory proposed by Marx and Engels. It is a model that regards the economy as the foundation or base of society. The cultural, political and social forms of life are, then, superstructures which are created out of the base and also serve to develop and extenuate the economic base. The economic base encompasses all of the forces of production, which Marx believes influences our ideological constructions (i.e. ideas of the ruling class).

Raymond Williams also wrote "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory," which reconsidered Marx's assignment of economic base as primary and the cultural superstructure as secondary to determining the relations of production. In his work, Williams explores the crucial ways in which culture also determines the social means of production, particularly the manufacture and reproduction of hegemonic consent and education in its labor force.