Page 167 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

144 Communication and Evolution of Society

The latter—whether of an economic, ideological, or some other type—
will act in many respects as infrastructure, in others as superstructure.
The Marxian statement about infrastructure and superstructure is un-
conditionally valid only for new appearances in history.?8

Marx introduced the concept of base in order to delimit a domain
of problems to which an explanation of evolutionary innovations
must make reference. The theorem states that evolutionary inno-
vations only solve those problems that arise in the basic domain
of society.
The equation of base and economic structure could lead to the
view that the basic domain always coincides with the economic sys-
tem. But this is true only of capitalist societies. We have specified
the relations of production by means of their function of regulat-
ing access to the means of production and thereby indirectly regu-
lating the distribution of social wealth. In primitive societies this
function was performed by kinship systems, and in civilizations,
by systems of domination. Only in capitalism, when the market,
along with its steering function, also assumed the function of
stabilizing class relationships, did the relations of production come
forth as such and take on an economic form. The theories of
postindustrial society even envision a state in which evolutionary
primacy would pass from the economic system to the educational
and scientific system.”? Be that as it may, the relations of produc-
tion can make use of different institutions.3°
The institutional core around which the relations of production
crystallize lays down a specific form of social integration. By
social integration, | understand, with Durkheim, securing the
unity of a social life-world through values and norms. If system
problems cannot be solved in accord with the dominant form of
social integration, if the latter must itself be revolutionized in
order to create latitude for new problem solutions, the identity
of society is in danger.
2. Marx sees the mechanism of crisis as follows:

At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of
society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or—
this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms—with the property
relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto.