The history of human civilization has always had features in every period of its existence and in different regions of the planet. The modern world, as we know it now, has become so not only thanks to technical innovations. Its formation was also facilitated by the continuous development of society with its stagnations, sharp leaps and revolutions. In economic and socio-political thought, there were many different approaches to highlighting such levels of social development. However, today the development of society is divided into such generalized stages.
Agrarian society
This society is represented by peasants, of which it consists almost entirely. It is the work on the ground and the cultivation of garden and horticultural crops that is the foundation of such a society. Commodity exchange takes place only in its infancy.
Industrial society
It arose as a result of the industrial revolution and the replacement of manual labor by machine, which greatly changed the development of society and social and economic relations in it.
Post-industrial society
This stage has already reached many countries of the Western world. It is also called informational, since it is information that becomes during this period a valuable factor. The main stages of the development of the information society have not yet been fully explored.
Marxist approach
A deeper and more complete assessment, reflecting the stages of development of society, was the work of Karl Marx in the middle of the XIX century, as well as his followers later. Marx divided the history of human society into five basic formations.
Primitive communal formation
Society had no surplus of its work. Everything was consumed.
Slave formation
The well-being of society as a whole was based on the forced labor of slaves.
Feudal formation
In such a society, there was a ladder hierarchy of overlord and personally dependent vassal. The grassroots structures of this society ensure its vital activity.
Important point
This and the previous formation correlate with the agricultural society. Marx did not particularly emphasize in his own works, but later researchers note that at the same time as medieval Europe in the East there was the so-called political method of production. It can not be called feudalism, because there was no social ladder, all the land formally belonged to the ruler, and all subjects were his slaves, deprived of all rights of their own free will. The medieval European king could hardly have done this to his own feudal lords.
Capitalist formation
Here, coercion was not violent methods, but economic leverage. Private law appears, new classes, the concept of commercial activity. Capitalism arises from the same reasons as industrial society.
Communist formation
Capitalism, according to Marxist theorists, was reborn into imperialism, characterized by the extreme exploitation of the working masses by a handful of merchants. As a result, the concept of a world revolution and a more just society was born. However, the further development of society and the Cold War have demonstrated that building communism, at least at this stage, is impossible. And capitalism, under the pressure of the latter, outgrew itself, forcing the oligarchs of the West to provide guarantees for improving the economic situation for the lower strata in order to avoid the spread of leftist tendencies.
