ABSTRACT
The social structure includes many types of institutions and structures. Most obvious is the political system, including the legislature, executive, political parties, courts, prisons, armies, and police. Economic forces and relations do help determine cultural ideas, values, and social and political institutions. But it is equally true that cultural ideas, values, and institutions help determine economic forces and relations. The official Marxism of the Soviet Union argues for a type of economic determinism. According to this view, the economic foundation of capitalism determines a capitalist social superstructure, with the appropriate laws and attitudes. To understand the internal evolution of the economic structure, we must also clarify the relationship between the relations of production and the forces of production. Aside from revolutionary situations, the tension between obsolete relations and changing productive forces also shows itself in economic crises of all sorts.
