- What is the Asian mode of production?
- Debate on the Asian mode of production
- Other modes of production
We explain what the Asian mode of production is according to Marxism and the debate around this concept.
What is the Asian mode of production?
The Asian mode of production, according to the postulates of the Marxism, is an attempt to apply the concept of modes of production with which Karl Marx studied and analyzed the economic history of the West, to non-Western societies that had different revolutionary developments.
It is a concept that is still in much debate, since it is not explicitly mentioned in the body of Marx's work. However, many Marxist theorists propose it for those societies that went through times of colonial rule by the western powers.
Instead, Marx's fellow theoretician, Friedrich Engels, did refer to the Asian mode of production. However, for many contemporary scholars it was similar to conditions in Europe. feudal. Even so, in the economic history of Eastern societies like India, frequently referred to by Marx, the patterns of slavery of the West.
It was distinguished because the State played a predominant role through the control of the irrigation channels essential for the work agricultural. In addition, the Condition controlled the lands, the can political and military.
The latter would be key in the formulation of the concept of the Asian mode of production, in particular to refer to the predominant despotism in the so-called “hydraulic societies”, in which the management of the Water it was the predominant factor in the organization of production, usually under state control.
Debate on the Asian mode of production
Scholars of Marxism have not reached an agreement on whether or not there was an Asian mode of production. Opinion often depends on the historical period. For many thinkers the model of the extinct Soviet Union it's an example. Its stiffness and authoritarianism imposed by Stalin, closely resembles the governments Asian authoritarian.
For others, it is just one possible interpretation of the economic history of China and India. Another alternative is to understand it as a tributary mode of production: a model in which a “class state ”that exclusively governs capital gain peasant, without however possessing exclusive ownership of the land.
Other modes of production
As well as talking about the Asian mode of production, there are also:
- Socialist mode of production. Proposed as an alternative to capitalism by Marx, it grants control of the means of production to the working or working class, to prevent them from being exploited by the bourgeoisie. Thus, the State assumes the abolition of the private property and of capital to put collective interests before individual ones, as a step towards a classless society but with such abundant production that goods are distributed according to need and not according to merit.
- Capitalist mode of production. The model of the bourgeoisie, imposed after the fall of the feudalism and the aristocracy, in which the owners of the capital they control the means of production. The working class offers them his work force, but they are exploited in exchange for a salary with which to consume the goods and services what do you need.
- Slave production mode. Typical of classical societies of the antiquityLike the Greek or Roman, it supported its production of agricultural goods based on a slave class, subject to a particular legal and social status, sometimes inhuman, which reduced them to being the property of a private master or the State. These slaves had no political participation, no property, nor did they receive any reward for their labors.