Part of the production relations is ownership. Something can be fully owned or partly owned. Having ownership is being able to do what you want with your productive forces and having the power to use, destroy or sell them. The productive forces have non-human aspects like advances in technology, such as computers and machines. These things are invented by the labourers and used by the labourers, which makes it almost impossible for productive forces not to develop. The labourers invent such things in order to lessen their workload and make their jobs easier and less stressful.
When the two components of productive forces, the means of production and the labour power, both grow and change, the productive forces therefore grow and develop over time.
The Development thesis must be stated before the Primacy thesis because the productive forces are the independent variables. The independent variables develop over time and therefore the primacy thesis cannot be justified without the changes happening before it. The Primacy thesis is about the primacy of the productive forces in explaining the changes in the economic structure.
Karl Marx’s Primacy thesis states that the nature of the production relations of a society is explained by the level of the development of its productive forces. This suggests that changes in productive forces lead to changes in production relations. Production relations are either relations of ownership by persons of productive forces or relations presupposing such relations of ownership. More simply put, the people who own the productive forces are the relations of ownership or effective control. The level of development of its productive forces can explain the quality of the production relations of a society. When the productive forces develop so do the production relations.
The primacy thesis and the development thesis go hand in hand. You cannot have the primacy thesis without first having the development thesis, as the primacy thesis states that the nature of the production relations of a society is explained by the level of development of its productive forces. The development thesis states that the productive forces tend to develop throughout history, therefore to have the primacy thesis you must first have the development thesis otherwise the primacy thesis wouldn’t make sense. Primacy is given to the productive forces and therefore means that the primacy thesis is dependent on the development thesis. Cohen distinguishes the two theses because the development of the productive forces must first be established and once it has been established, the primacy thesis can then be given to the productive forces, which bring about changes in the production relations.
In order to understand the justification of the Development thesis, one must first look at why it must be stated before the primacy thesis. In every society, the power comes from its productive forces, therefore if the development thesis did not state that productive forces change and develop over time then the society’s power would never develop and then they would be lacking in it. The primacy thesis states that primacy is given to the productive forces; therefore the development thesis must first be established in order for the primacy thesis to exist.
2. What justification does he give for the Development Thesis?
The Development Thesis states that the productive forces develop and increase over time. For this to occur, it is necessary that some aspects of human nature remain constant over time. The two main human aspects that remain constant are intelligence and rationality. Because of evolution, brains have evolved. Humans have the ability to be curious and inquire knowledge, and they are able to learn with the growth of knowledge. Humans use their rationality and are able to come up with ways to improve and reduce their workload and the workload of others. Although they are not always rational, humans usually choose the easiest or most rational way when making distinctions between such things as comfort and discomfort, why work and use all our energy when we can find a way to work with little effort and more comfort? Rationality usually relates a choice and because human intelligence is growing and improving, humans are able to make a more rational decision concerning the productive forces and the productive relations.
