Antonio Gramsci (1891 – 1937) was a leading Italian Marxist. He was an intellectual, a journalist and a major theorist who spent his last eleven years in Mussolini’s prisons. During this time, he completed 32 notebooks containing almost 3,000 pages. These notebooks were smuggled out from his prison and published in Italian after the war but did not find an English-language publisher until the 1970s. The central and guiding theme of the Notebooks was the development of a new Marxist theory applicable to the conditions of advanced capitalism. His Prison Notebooks are considered a highly original contribution to 20th-century political theory.
“Hegemony” was most likely derived from the Greek egemonia, whose root is egemon, meaning “leader, ruler, often in the sense of a state other than his own”. Since the 19th century, “hegemony” commonly has been used to indicate “political predominance, usually of one state over another”.
Gramsci’s “hegemony” refers to a process of moral and intellectual leadership through which dominated or subordinate classes of post-1870 industrial Western European nations consent to their domination by ruling classes, as opposed to being simply forced or coerced into accepting inferior positions. Gramsci defines hegemony as a form of control exercised by a dominant class, in the Marxist sense of a group controlling the means of production.
Gramsci & Marx
Marx’s work is highly influenced by economic reasoning. He divides this economic reasoning into two levels, being the base and superstructure. The base is composed of material production, money, objects, the relations of production and the stage of development of productive forces. (Williams, R. 1977) The superstructure is where we find the political and ideological institutions, our social relations, set of ideas; our cultures, hopes, dreams and spirit. (Williams, R. 1977) Both the base and superstructure are shaped by capital.
Gramsci accepted the analysis of capitalism put forward by Marx and accepted that the struggle between the ruling class and the subordinate working class was the driving force that moved society forward. Gramsci did not agree with the notion put forward by Marx that the ruling class stayed in power solely because they had economic power. He thus introduced his concept using ideology. Ideology is the shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. Gramsci felt that ideological power kept the ruling class in power because it allowed them to brainwash and manipulate the rest of society.
Gramsci insists that ideology has a material nature in the social lives of individuals, as ideologies are embedded in communal modes of living and acting. This means that ideologies are embodied in the social practices of individuals and in the institutions and organizations within which these social practices take place. Example: Mass media and popular culture - All of them promote the dominant ideology of Patriotism via their representation of nationality, race or caste. The viewpoint of the dominant/ruling class is mainstreamed using media that would be normalized and accepted by the audience.
Ideology provides people with the rules of practical conduct and moral behaviour. Those who monopolize ideological power have authority over others. Subordinate groups tend to accept the ideas and values of the dominant group without physical or mental influence because they know no better or there are no other alternatives. From Gramsci’s view, the bourgeoisie gained and maintained power due to economic domination and intellectual and moral leadership. It occurs when dominant classes in society maintain their dominance persuading the other classes of society to accept their moral, political and cultural values. This means that the majority in a population give consent to policies and ideologies implemented by those in power. One must not assume that this consent is always willing. Those in power may combine physical force or coercion with intellectual, moral and cultural persuasion.
According to Gramsci, hegemony never disappears but is constantly changed. He describes two forms of social control. The first type is coercive control which is achieved through the use of direct force or threat of force. The second type is consensual control which arises when individuals voluntarily adopt the worldview of the dominant group. Example: Almost all of the higher education is instructed in Engish. Those who are not well versed in English are cast out, while the ones who know to handle the English language well is seen as synonymous to well educated. Most from the dominant class are well versed in English, as this class has better access to good elementary education.
Gramsci says that within civil society, the dominant group exercises hegemony which is intellectual domination over the subordinate group or consensual control, whereas, in political society, domination is exercised through state or juridical government or coercive control. Social hegemony and political government are enforced historically in which the dominant group enjoys its position because of its function in the world of production and legally by state coercive power which enforces discipline on groups that do not consent. This gives rise to a division of labour or specialization and a whole hierarchy of qualifications.
Comments
Post a Comment