The economic base sets the range of political solutions but never their specific form.

Evidence

In one sense, then, the political crisis of 1851 is given at the level of mode of production. It may even be seen that, in a long-term sense, the stage of development (i.e., underdevelopment) of the capitalist mode of production is what prescribes—determines, in an epochal sense—the range of “solutions” to the crisis possible at this stage of development (i.e., no clear resolutions, one way or another). What it certainly does not do is to prescribe, in detail, either the content or forms of the political conjuncture. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 513

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is Hall’s key account of ‘determination in the last instance’ — base determines the range of viable options, not the specific political content.
• XREF: This ‘limits-to-possibility’ view of determination parallels the framework of constraint rather than prescription — like how institutions constrain but never fully determine behavior.