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Gramsci The problems of Marxism are diverse, but all center on the failure of Marxist theory to be realized in practice. The most significant example of this is the persistent survival of the capitalist mode of production. Marx predicted its downfall because he saw the mixture of the capitalist mode of production and democratic politics as a contradiction. By asking the question how can capitalism persist? (Z.
Przworski, 19) Antonio Gramsci has provided the most promising way of reviving Marxist theory. In order to explain the perseverance of the capitalist mode of production, Antonio Gramsci puts forward his concept of hegemony. Hegemony has been heralded as the most promising answer to the problems of Marxism. He argues that dominance in economic relations of production is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for social dominance. The economically dominant class also requires hegemony to rule.
Hegemony is the ideological dominance of society, the position in which an ideology favorable to the dominant class is agreed upon by the society as a whole. The subordinate classes are persuaded to hold views and values, which are consistent with the continued economic and social dominance of the ruling class. Through this concept, it is possible to show how capitalism and democracy have survived in Marxian terms. This is the great success of Gramsci's work.
The most important aspect of the notion of hegemony is that of consent. In order to gain hegemony, the economically dominant class must forge alliances through compromise with other classes and social forces, so that it may gain political and ideological leadership. Hegemony creates a far more complex relation between the two fundamentally opposed classes. The alliances a hegemonic class will form, and the compromises it makes with other classes ensure that it gains the active consent of society. Gramsci uses the term active consent to show that the individual person or group is not passive in the creation and maintenance of hegemony. Classical Marxism says that the state is a reflection of the economic reality of society, and uses the base-superstructure distinction to illustrate the causal links between the two.
Gramsci's thesis challenges this analogy, as the concept of hegemony allows for the ruling class to be partly determined within the realm of politics. It is also possible, under Gramsci's thesis, for an economically dominant group to fail to achieve hegemony. Gramsci gives the intellectual class a role to play in the revolution. This is another gain for Marxist theory as a whole, as the prescriptive determinist viewpoint of classical Marxists did not leave much room for party leaders or politically active intellectuals. The intellectuals who are of concern to Gramsci are organic. This means they are part of the class they represent, actually bound up as part of a national-popular mass.
The role they play is of party leadership, and pressing for the ideological and moral reform required for the war of position. Gramsci rescues Marxism from accusations of passivism instrumentalism, simplistic catastrophism, and economist reductionism (J. Hoffman, 29). These accusations are that the state is simply an instrument of the dominant class, that classes become increasingly polarized and opposed until revolution inevitably occurs, and that all aspects of the political and ideological superstructure are reducible to the economic base. All three are harmful to Marxist theory, as they portray a very deterministic view of politics and society. The notion of hegemony gives the social and political a more significant role in Marxism, as well as the complex relation between the economic structure and society.
Gramsci's work has been heralded as a Copernican Revolution of Marxist theory by some, as his theory of hegemony gives a new vision for Marxist theorist. For others he simply expands on some aspects of already existing theory. It must be remembered that for Marx one of the attributes of the ruling class was ownership of the means of propagation and reproduction of ideas. This goes some way towards an idea of ideological dominance Gramsci's concept of hegemony's imply clarifies and expands upon Marx's own position. This is not to belittle Gramsci's importance.
The ability to for Marxism to create a consensual society is a great boost to Marxist theory. It is now possible to distance Marxism from the oppressive regimes, which were created in its name. Works cited: 1. Z. Przworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy, Oxford, OUP 1993. 2. J.
Hoffman, The Gramsci Challenge, Chicago 1987
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