ABSTRACT
With the concept of the Asiatic mode of production, Marx has shown us societies within which particular village communities are subject to the power of a minority of individuals who represent a higher community, the expression of the real or imaginary unity of the particular communities. For Marx, the Asiatic mode of production is linked to the need to organise major economic projects beyond the means of particular communities or isolated individuals and constitutes the precondition for productive activity for these communities. This chapter aims to define the structure and certain forms and conditions of the appearance of the Asiatic mode of production. It suggests a structural definition of the Asiatic mode of production, assumed a relationship between the structure and certain situations of transition to class society and, at the abstract level, grasped the theoretical possibility of a wider field of application than Marx had been able to predict for the concept.
