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The social formation is a term invented by the French Marxist-Leninist philosopher Louis Althusser in reference to the complex structure of society, which may be comprised of multiple modes of production and state apparatuses at any given stage in the class struggle. Specifically, during the transition of an ongoing revolution, there may be multiple modes of production present competing for "dominance" over the political economy, each with their own ideological and repressive apparatuses in open conflict.
The term originates from Althusser's essay "Contradiction and Overdetermination" in the 1962[1], as a means of capturing the full complexity of social relations within a given society. It is a core part of Althusser's reinterpretation of the dialectics of political economy, in which he aimed to move past a reductive base-superstructure model, but instead as a complex, dialectically interrelated totality of structures.[2]
These structures include ideological state apparatuses, repressive state apparatuses, and different modes and relations of production. The social formation is a specific combination of all of those things, existing within a particular society at a particula point in time. Rather than viewing these components in an absolute unidirectional relationship – with the economic base always determining the superstructure – Althusser posits that these components exist in a complex interaction of 'relative autonomy', wherein each can influence the other (albeit with the base remaining "dominant in the final instance"[3]).