Ideology and Economic Activity*

by Michio Morishima London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussion Paper No. JS/86/142 1986

The Suntory Centre Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. Tel. 020-7955 6698 ___________________________________________________________________

A survey article for a "State of the Art" volume for the area of Economy and Society, edited by Neil Smelser and Alberto Martinelli.

NB: This PDF was retrospectively created in February 2004 of the STICERD discussion paper previously published in 1986.

Abstract In considering ideology and economic activity, ideology is defined as a system of beliefs which binds people together into a social grouping. This is synonymous with religion as defined by Durkheim (1912) and, as a definition of religion, it may be too wide; but if this definition is adopted, both Confucianism and Marxism are 'religion'. In any case, there are two broad-based classes of approach to this problem, Marxian and Weberian. The former regards ideology which, together with such institutions as the state, family structure, etc., constitute the superstructure of the society, as being no more than a reflection of underlying basic material conditions. The latter, on the other hand, approaches from the superstructure to the base and establishes the reverse relationship. As will be seen later, neither of the two approaches alone can serve for the intepretation of a social historical process. To achieve this we must use both approaches and examine interdependence and interaction between materialistic or economic factors, and ideological or religious ones. Keywords: Ideology, economic activity, social groups, religion, institutions, Confucianism, Marx, Weber, historical process.

by Michio Morishima. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including notice, is given to the source.