Means of Production - Related Terms

Related Terms

Factors of production are defined by Karl Marx in Das Kapital as labour, subjects of labour, and instruments of labour; i.e., the term is equivalent to means of production plus labour. The factors of production are often listed in economic writings derived from the classical school as "land, labour and capital". Marx sometimes used the term "productive forces" equivalently with "factors of production;" in Capital, he uses "factors of production," in his famous Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, he uses "productive forces" (note that this is in the English versions and may depend on the translation.)

Production relations (Marx: Produktionsverhältnis) are the relations humans enter into with each other in using the means of production to produce. Examples of such relations are employer/employee, buyer/seller, the technical division of labour in a factory, and property relations.

Mode of production (Marx: Produktionsweise)

(In political context) - the facilities and resources for producing goods. Study of how people take over other governments using force and violence, not talks and agreements.