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| Karl Marx |
The most common concept and set of terms associated with Marxist thought would be Base and Superstructure.
In Marxism the social and cultural aspects of life are believed to be dependent upon the economic ones. This is essentially the base superstructure model. The economic conditions in a society constitute the ‘base’ because they determine the nature and character of the social and cultural forms. The cultural aspects constitute the superstructure.
Superstructure = culture, lifestyle, arts, literature, religion etc.
Base = Factors and relations of production [primary economic activities].
The nature of the base will be crucial in determining what kind of cultural form emerge in any society. This means cultural forms have a material basis.
Class conflict, exploitative capitalism and the domination of the bourgeois class will manifest as political power. Once capitalists acquire political power then they seek to introduce measures that will help them reinforce and expand their power. In other words, the base, which provides a superstructure, will in turn be strengthened by the superstructure.
Louis Althusser’s comment
Though this concept assures the dependency of culture on economy or superstructure on base, Louis Althusser and the later Marxists proposed that the cultural realm enjoys a certain degree of autonomy from the economic base.
It is indeed determined by the base, but it’s determined only in the last instance. That is, the economic base only provides a general frame work within which cultural practices and forms appear.