Category of historical materialism that marks the concrete forms of existence of the history of society. The organic unity of the economic foundation and superstructure of society corresponding to a certain stage of the development of productive forces. Social formation is the general term for the economic, political and cultural system and formation at a certain stage of development of human society. Any social formation is concrete and historical. In a concrete social formation, the productive forces determine the relations of production, and the relations of production react upon the productive forces. The economic foundation, which is determined, in the last instance, by the productive forces, determines the superstructure, and the superstructure reacts upon the economic foundation. The interaction between the productive forces and the relations of production, between the economic foundation and the superstructure, forms the contradictory movement of social formations…
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