Research On The Marx’s Theory Of Social Structure

In connection with the realistic social problems, and absorbing several achievements which emerged earlier, Marx’s theory of social structure has become the essence of the era. By constant criticism and self-criticism, Marx found that the biggest deficiency of earlier social structure theory is that they were not closely linked to reality. If the theory does not spring from reality, then they surely cannot explain problems existing in reality.Marx’s initial understanding of social structure started from the critique of Hegel’s theory of the State. Marx criticized Hegel’s way of problem solving, which explain the contradiction between civil society and State by identifying logical concepts. In contrast, Marx figured out that we should grasp the logic of reality. In order to explore the existence and development logic of the public society, Marx began his research on political economy. With the deepening of the study, Marx was acutely aware that modern social relations are integral homogeneous with capital. The conflict between socialized production and capitalist private ownership is inevitable. The contradiction between productive forces and production relations is the key to understand the law of social development. The forming process of Marx’s theory of social structure has shown his practical and dialectical thinking.Marx’s social structure theory works on social structure. The complexity of social structure endows the theory of social structure with richness content. Marx’s theory of social structure covers the relationship between society and the State, society and individual and social and nature. In order to figure out these questions, Marx divided his theory into three levels as follows: the basic structure, the functional structure and the relation structure of society. Marx first looked at the basic structure, established the basic elements of the social structure and development, and then worked on the inherent characteristics and interconnectedness of the society. He also described and analyzed the changes in social relations in the framework of the basic structure of society development. In this way, Marx answered the question of how the social structure forms and moves systematically. Being the dominant structure of society as a whole, the basic structure of society determines the basic nature and forms of society. The functional social structure is a necessary complement to the operating logic of the basic structure, corresponding to the basic areas of human’s activity. Social relations structure is one of the main manifestations of changes in social development. It’s also an important factor to influence the social structure. These three social structure is not logically contradictory or mutually exclusive, but rather reflects a high degree of relevance and consistency. It shows the various investigation of the multi-dimensions of social structure. These three dimensions, that is, the essence dimension, the functional dimension and the phenomenon dimension, constitute the complete framework of Marx’s theory of social structure all together.Marx led people’s concern to the reality of life, but not just float on the surface of social phenomena. Marx believed that social structure built on practical activities, which emphasize man’s initiative and also requires people to grasp the principle of unity of subject and object in practice. With the establishment of practical viewpoint, Marx began to understand social structures as the existence of relationship. Marx disclosed the reality of property relations and civil rights, and smashed the illusion that the superstructure of political and legal concepts systems are of free will with economic interests. He confirmed the conclusion that social relations are based on the production relations. The character of practice explain the emergence of social order from ontological view, while the character of relationship show the nature of social structure from the reality, and the character of morphology outlines the general characteristics and the nature of the social structure under certain historical stages from the historical dimension. Marx proposed various social patterns, including socio-economic patterns, technology patterns and human development patterns from different contexts. In Marx’s view, social evolution is a dialectical unity process of regularity and purpose, inevitability and selectivity.After Marx, many Marxists made new interpretations to Marx’s theory of social structure and propulsion. Engels, as the best friend of Marx, analyzed the basic principle of social structure’s contradiction movement again, with particular emphasis on the reaction of the superstructure. Engels’ complement and development is an integral part of Marx’s theory of social structure. Following Engels’ s efforts, struggling against opportunism in the workers’ movement, and analyzing new phenomena in the process of capitalist society, Second International theorists also formed their own distinctive social structure theory, which mainly reflected on the complex relationship between economic foundation and superstructure and the various forms and origins of ideology. However, they also made several mistakes in simplifying Marx’s theory of social structure. As for Lenin, he directly faced the problem to apply the theory of Marx’s social structure to the new historical conditions. It is just in the combination of the general principles of Marxism with practice of Russian society, he found a theoretical breakthrough. Lenin worked out a realistic way of developing Marx’s theory of social structure from the imperialist era background and Russia’s social reality of semi-feudal and half-capitalism by constantly practice. Stalin mainly absorbed the social basic structure part and the social relation part of Marx’s social structure theory. He basically followed Marx’s principle and research method. However, it is regrettable that he failed to understand this theory in depth, as well as to apply it in appropriate way. Stalin eventually deviated from the social development approach developed by Lenin.Russian Revolution succeeded, while the revolution in Western countries has gradually subsided. Such opposite fate prompted a group of Western scholars rethinking of Marx’s theory of social structure and development. First, they tried to dig out the nature of Marxism by criticizing the capitalist, or advocating fight for ideological leadership, or proposing to remodel a scientific Marxism; second, they expected to rebuild Marx’s theory of social structure by updating its basic concepts, or making a more clear set based on modern scientific theories, or coming up with new concept as an alternative to the classic concept of historical materialism; third, they denied the class issue’s logic in Marx’s theory by reconstructing its viewpoint, or considering the subjects of "class" has passed away, or replacing class analysis from the political sphere to the social sphere. Although western Marxism has some limits(and some of them are even wrong), but they also promote the dissemination of Marx’s theory in the world.Due to the urgent need of China’s revolutionary practice, historical materialism quickly got recognition in the advanced Chinese intellectuals from various sources. They explicitly advocate the idea of class struggle, social revolution as a means of improving society, and the proletariat as a goal of social reform. This opened a new chapter in first half of 20 th century Chinese revolution. The early leaders of the Communist Party of China made a wide range research of China’s social structure under the guidance of Marx’s theory, and clarified the nature and the path of Chinese revolution according to the understanding of the nature of Chinese society. However, the application of Marx’s theory of social structure in China has not always been smoothly. The period of Chinese socialist construction turned out to be a complex period in combine the Marx’s theory with China’s reality. During this period, in theory, we developed a way of how to transform from new-democratic society to socialist, created a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and analyzed the internal contradictions of socialist society creatively. But in practice, it has been built up as a highly centralized, closed rigid social structure. Due to the immaturity building experience of the socialist society and misunderstanding of the classical theory, Marx’s theory of social structure has been used inappropriately. History warns us that the application of the social structure theory cannot be divorced from reality. In no circumstances that we should exert subjective wish to the exclusion of the objective laws of social structure.In the social reform period, the Communist Party of China learn the lesson, emancipate the mind, and work hard on its own national conditions. One of the most basic rule is to follow the development law of social infrastructure. With the establishment of the idea of taking economic construction as the central task, we finally corrected the misconception of "taking class struggle as the key link", and then established the important principle that the fundamental task of socialism is to develop productive forces. And it became the internal demand of liberating the productive forces by exploring the productivity relations which in line with the existing productivity’s development requirements, as well as promoting continuous improvement of superstructure. With the transformation of the basic structure of society, the internal structure of two basic classes and other social groups on the edge of them became more dynamic. The contradictions among people(particularly the conflict of interests) replaced class struggle as the main content of social relations on the primary stage of socialism. Changes in the structure of social relations not only profoundly affected the relationship between social members, but also directly reflected the results of Chinese society’s basic structure reform in the same period. The achievements of the Chinese society’s basic structure reform also reflected on the changes in functional social structure. Political power gradually exited from the economic and cultural fields. Different area’s relationships tended to be loose and began to explore their own development paths. Highlighting the centrality function and value of the human, attaching great importance to the overall development of the social structure and approaching to explore scientific reform operation are the three precious experiences in application and developing Marx’s theory of social structure in China.Marx reveals the inherent contradictions of social structure and development by analyzing material production. Theoretical analysis and practical application of the theory of Marx’s social structure cannot be rendered part of random, or to be extended to arbitrary interpretation of the theory’s scope. Marx’s theory of social structure will get further innovation and development through extensive interaction with other disciplines and contemporary social issues.