THE FORMATION OF THE

INTELLECTUALS
Antonio Gramsci

Are intellectuals an autonomous and independent social does

every social group have its own
group, or

particular
intellectuals The problem IS a complex one, specialised category of
because of the variety
of forms assumed to date by the real
historical process of formation
of the different category of intellectuals.
The most
important of these forms are two:

1. Every social group, coming into existence

original terrain on the
of essential function in the world of economic
an
production, creates
together with itself, organically, one or more strata' of intellectuals
Soal
which give it homogeneity and an awareness of its own function not
onlyin the economic but also in the social and political fields. The
capitalist entrepreneur createsalongside himself theindustrial technician,
the specialist in political economy, the organisers of a new culture,
nhluwof
lfa new legal system, etc. It shoud be noted that the entrepreneur
himself represents a higher level of social elaboration, already
characterised by a certain directive [dirigente] and technical (i.e.
intellectual) capacity: he must have a certain technical capacity, not

and initiative but in other

only in the limited sphere of his activity
closest to ceconomic
spheres as well, at least in those which are

production. He organiser of masses of men; he must be

must be an

an organiser of the "confidence

of investors in his busines, of the
etc.
customers for his product,
them must have
least an elite among
at
If not all entrepreneurs,
of society in general, including all its
the capacity to be an organiser
to the state organism, because
services, right up
compex organism of
of the need to create the conditions
most tavourable to the expansion
must
they
the least
the to poSsess capacity
class; or at
of their own
to whom to entrust this
employees)
choose the deputies (specialised
 Antonio Gramsci

activity of
organising the
the business itself. general system of relationships to
It can be observed thar the exte
which every new class
"organic intel the
Course of its
creates alongside itself and elaborate n

development, are for the most part "specialisatio

partial aspects of the primitive activity of the social type
new "
the new class has into brought prominence.
Even feudal lords were possessors of a particular tecnn
capacitY, military capacity, and it is precisely from the moment
which the aristocracy loses its monopoly of technico-military capaclty
intellectuals
feudalism begins. But the formation of
thatthe crisis of question
classical world is
a

in the feudal world and in the preceding follows

this formation and elaboration
to be examined separately
:
Thus it is to be
m u s t be studied concretely.
and m e a n s which essential
although it performs an
ways
of the peasantry,
noted that the mass
n o t elaborate
its o w n
world of production, does other
function in the
it is from the peasantry that
intellectuals, although high_proportion
organic" intellectuals and a
many of their
social groups draw origin.
traditional intellectuals
are of peasant history
of "essential social group
which emerges into
every of a
However, as an expression
2. s t r u c t u r e , and
economic
of the preceding found (at least in
all of history up
out s t r u c t u r e , has
of this and
Tradi
development in existençe
categories of intellectuals already
to the
present) historical continuity
uninterrupted,.h P O l l t i c a l a n d h l l p h s

representan
which seemed indecd to and radical changes
in political and
complicated
the most
even by
is that of the
social forms.

typical categories of intellectuals

of these
The most which
whole phase of history,
for a long time (tor a
ecclesiastics, who
Scienz Politica (new expanded
edition, 1923) are worth
Mosca's Elementi di is nothing
Mosca's so-called "political class"
in this connection.
looking at
Moscas
of the dominant social group.
other than the intellectual category
of the
class" can be connected with Pareto's concept
concept of "political
the historical phenomenon of the
Elite, which is another attempt to interpret
and of society. Moscas
intellectuals and their function in the life of the state
book is an e n o r m o u s hotch-potch, of a sociological and positivistic character,
plusthe tcndentiousness of immediate polities which makes
it less indigestible
and livelier from a literary point of view.
 CXECThal to
"intel ectual
orates in the is partly characterised by this very monopoly) held
The Formation of the Intellectuals 21

monopoly of
alisations' of
I type which
number of important seryices: religious
and science of the age, ideology, that is the philosophy
together with schools, education,
a a

iustice, charity, good works, etc. The morality,

category of ecclesiastics can be
ar technical considered the category of intellectuals organically bound to the landed
aristocracy. It had cqual status juridically with the
moment at which it shared the exercise of feudal aristocracy, with
ownership
tary capacity af state privileges connected with
of land, and the use
property. But the monopoly held
intellectuals
s a question
hv the ecclesiastics
without a struggle or
in the
superstructural field
without
was not exercised
limitations,
and hence there took
place
tion follows rhe birth, in various forms (to be
gone into and studied concretely),
s it is to be of other categories, favoured and enabled to
expand by the growing
anessential strength of the central power of the monarch, right up to absolutism.
Thus we find the formation of the nobless de
ate its own robe, with its own
privileges, a stratum of
administrators,
that other heorists, non-ecclesiastical
etc., scholars and scientists,

proportion philosophers, etc.

Since these various categories of traditional intellectuals
experience
through an "esprit de corps" their uninterrupted historical continuiry
nto history and their special qualification, they thus pue theraselves forward as
ession of a autonomous andindependent of thedominantsocialgroup. This self-
history upP assessment is not without consequences in the ideological and political
stence and Trnd'
nterrupted , h'ond For one category of these intellectuals, possibly the most important after the
hllahe ecclesiastical for its prestige and the social function it performed in primitive
litical and societies, the category of medical men in the wide sense, that is all those who
struggle or seem to struggle against death and disease, compare the Storia
hat of the della medicina of Arturo Castiglioni. Note that there has been a connection
ry, which between religion and medicine, and in certain areas there still is hospitals
in the hands of religious orders for certain organisational unctions, apart
from the fact that wherever the doctor appears, so does the priest (exorcism,
) are worth
various forms of assistance, ete.). Many great religious tigures were and are
is nothing
conceived of as great "healers": the idea ot miracles, up to the resurrection
p. Moscas
of the dead. Even in the case of kings the belief long survived that they could
ept of the
heal with the laying on of hands, etc.
enon of the From this has come the general sense ot "intellectual" or "specialist" of the
ty. Moscas word "chierico" (clerk, cleric) in many languages ot romance origin or heavily
character, the romance languages, together with
influenced, through church Latin, by
ndigestible correlative "laico" (lay, layman) in
the sense ot protane, non-specialist.
 22 Antonio Gramsci

field,
consequences of wide-ranging
philosophy can easily be connected import. or The whole
whole of idealist
SOCial with this
of that
complex of
intellectuals position
and can be defined
assumed u
the
social utopia by the exprsession
as
which the intellectuals
independent", think of
etc.
autonomous, endowed with a
themselvc
character of tneu own,
as

One should note

however that if the Pope and the
hierarchy Church consider themselves more linked to leaang
of the
Christ
and to the
apostles than they are to senators Agnelli and Benni, the
same does not hold for Gentile and Croce, for
example : Croce in
particular feels himself closely linked to Aristotle and Plato, but he
does not conceal, on the other hand, his links with senators Agnelli
and Benni, and it is precisely here that one can discern the most
significant character of Croce's philosophy.
What are the "maximum" limits of acceptance of the term
"intellectual"? Can one find a unitary criterion to characterise equally
all the diverse and disparate activities of intellectuals and to distinguish
these at the same time and in an essential way from the activities of
other social groupings? The most widespread error of method seems
to me that of having looked for this criterion of distinction in the
intrinsic nature of intellectual activities, rather than in the ensemble
f the system of relations in which these activities
(and therefore the
intellectual groups who personity them) have their place within the
.eneral complex of social relations. Indeed the worker or
for example, not proletarian,
1s
specifically characterised by his manual or
instrumental work, but by pertorming this
work in
and in specific social relations (apart trom the specitic conditions
orely physical labour does not exist and that even consideration that
rained gorillas" is metaphor to indicate
a Taylor's phrase
of
a limit in
direction: in any physical work, even the a certain

mechanical, there exISts a

minimum ot
most
degraded and
a minimum of creative întettecruat technical
is, qualification, that
Giovanni Genile (1875-1944), activity). And we have already
ltalian
philosopher. neo-Hegelian idealist and Fascist
Bencdetto Croce
opposed Fascism. He
(1866-1952): ltalian ldealist
liberal
is most well
known for his work philosopher,_who
Philosophy of Spirit.
 The Formation
of the Intellectuals 23
ahserved that the entrepreneur, by virtue of his
have to some aegree a certain
very function, must
number of
although his part in society isqualifications
of
intellectual nature
determined
not by
an

these, but by the general social relations which

the position of the entrepreneur within industry.
specifically characterise
All men are intellectuals, one could therefore
say: but not all men
have in society the function of intellectuals."
When one distinguishes between intellectuals and
non-intellectuals,
on is referring in reality only to the immediate social function of
the professional category of the intellectuals, that is, one has in mind
rhe direction in which their specific professional is activity weighted,
whether towards intellectual elaboration or towards muscular-nervous
effort. This means that, although one can speak of intellectuals, one
cannot speak of non-intellectuals, because non-intellectuals do not
exist. But even the relationship berween efforts of intellectual-cerebral
elaboration and muscular-nervous eftort is not aways the same, so
that there are varying degrees of specific intellectual activity. There
is no human activity from which every form ofintellectual participation
be separated from homo sapiens.
can be excluded: homo faber cannot
carries on some
Each man, finally, outside his professional activity,
is a "philosopher", an artist,
form of intellectual activity, that is, he
world,
a man of taste, he participates
in a particular conception of the
therefore contributes to
has a conscious line of moral conduct, and
world or to modify it,
that is, to bring
sustain a conception of the
into being new modes of thought.
of intellectuals consists
new s t r a t u m
problem of creating
a
The activity that
intellectual
critical elaboration
of the
theretore in the its
of development, modifying
Cxists in everyone at a certain degree equilibrium,
new
muscular-nervous
effort towards a
so far as it
relationship with the musculár-nervous
effort itself, in
and ensuring that the activity, which
is perpetually
practical foundation of
IS an element of a general becomes the
world,
and social and
nnovating the physical of the world.
The traditional
conception
a new and integral
of couple
some time fries a
at
happen that
everyone
that everyone
because it can
necessarily say
Ihus, we do not

a tear in a jacket,
EES or sews up

is a cook or a tailor
 24 Antonio Gramsei

vulgarised type of the

philosopher, the artist. intellectual is given
by the man or ic
Therefore journalists, who claim to
Or
letters,
philosophers, artists, also reeard themselves as theD
intellectuals. In the modern tru
world, technical education, bound
to
industrial labour even at most
theorimitive clos
must form the
basis of the new
and unqualified level,

On this basis the

type of intellectua.
weekly Ordine Nuovo worked to develop certain
forms of new intellectualism and to determine its new concepts, ana

,a1leeaa
this was not the least of the reasons for its success, since such a

Fpe
u Conception corresponded to latent aspirations and conformed to the
development of the real forms of life. The mode of being ot he new
intellectualcan no lenger consist_in eloquence, which is an exterior
and momentary mover of feelings and
passions, but in_active
pårticipation in practical lite, as cOnSEructor, organiser, permanent

persuader and not just asimple orator (but superiorat the sametime
to the abstract mathematical spirit); from technique-as-work one
proceeds to technique-as-sCience and to the humanistic conception
of history, without which one remains "specialised and does not
become "directive specialised and political).
Thus there are historically formed specialised categories for the
evercise of the intellectual function. They are formed in
connection
with all social groups, but especially in connection with the
more
important, and they undergo more extensive and complex elaboratiòn
in connection with the dominant social
group. One of the most
importantcharacteristics of any group that is developing
dominance is its Struggle to assimilate and to towards
chetraditional intellectuals, but this conquer ideologically
auicker and more efficacious the assimilation and conquest /s made
in simultaneously more the group in question
succeeds
The enormouselaborating own organic intellecuals.
its

education in the broaddevelopment

sense in the
of
activity and organisation of
medieval world is an index of the societies that emerged from the
world by intellectual functions importance assumed in the
modern
to
deepen and to broaden the and categories. Parallel with the
has also
been an attempt "intellectuality"
to
of each attempt
individual, there
specialisations. This can be seen multiply and narrow the
from
educational institutionsvarious
at all
 The Formation of
the Intellectuals 25
levels, up to and incuaing the organisms that exist to promote so-

alled "high culture in all fields of science and technology.

School is the instrument
through which intellectuals of various ,L
levels are elaborated. The Complexity of the intellectual function in
dHferent states can be measured objectively by the number and
6*
adation of specialised schools: the more extensive the "area" covered
by education and the more numerous the "vertical" "levels" of

schooling, the more complex is the cultural world, the civilisation,

of a particular state. A point of comparison can be found in the sphere

industrial technology: the industrialisation of

country can be a
of
measured by how well equipped it is in the production of machines
of ever more
with which to produce machines, and in the manufacture
for making both machines and further instruments
accurate instruments
etc. The
machines, which is best equipped in the
country
for making
construction of for experimental scientific laboratoraties
instruments
instruments with which to test the first
and in the construction of
as the most complex
in the technical-
instruments, can be regarded
level of civilisation, etc. The
same
industrial field, with the highest dedicated
intellectualsthe schools
and to
applies to the preparation of culture can be
this preparation; schools and institutes of high
to cannot be
assimilated to each other.
In this field also, quantity
techical-cultural specialisation
To the most refined
separated from quality. diffusion of
the maximum possible
but correspond middle
there
expand the
cannot
care taken to
and the maximum
primary education Naturally this need to provide
much as possible. of the top
Srades numerically as and elaboration
selection
the widest base possible
for the s t r u c t u r e to high
democratic
qualification-i..e. to give a
its disadvantages:
ntellectual is not
without
technology for the middle
r e and top-level crises of
unemployment
the possibility of vast takes place.
creates societies this actually
all modern strata in
intellectual strata, and in intellectual
the
elaboration of
worth noting that of abstract
itis terrain
on the
does not
take place traditional
historical
ncrete reality concrete

accordance
with very "produce"
nocracy but in which traditionally
grown up have specialised
Strata have those which
PIOCeSses. coincide with and certain
these s t r a t a
Clectuals and landed bourgeoisie
middle
and
saving', i.e. the
petty
 Antonio Gramsci

strata of the
petty and middle urban bourgeosie.
aistribution of different nrofessional)o
I)10
tvpes of schoal (classical and professiona
oYC tne economic" territorv and the varving aspirations or alrerent

dLgories within these strata determine, or give torm to, the

production of various branches of intellectual specialisation. 1 hus in

y ne rural bourgeoisie produces particular state functionaries

in
produces
ana professional people, whereas the urban bourgeoisie
taly
echnicians for industry. Consequently it is largely northern
which produces technicians and the South which produces functionaries
and professional men.
and the world of
The relationship between the intellectuals
the fundamental social groups
production is not as direct as it is with
but is, in varying degrees, "mediated" by
the whole fabric of society
of which the intellectuals are,
and by the complex of superstructures,
should be possible both to measure
precisely, the "functionaries." It
the various intellectual strata and
the "organic quality lorganicita of
with a fundamental social group, and to
their degree of connection
of the superstructures from
establish a gradation of their function and
the structural base upwards). What we
the bottom to the top (from
can do, for the moment, is to fix two major superstructural "levels

the one that can be called "civil socierty" that is the ensemble of
organisms commonly called private," and that of "political society"
or "the State. These two levels correspond on the one hand to the
function of hegemony'' which the dominant group exercises throughout
society and on the other hand to that of "direct domination" or
command exercisedthrough the State and "juridical" government.
The functions in question are precisely organisational and connective.
The intellectuals are dominant group's "deputies
exercising the
subaltern functions of social hegemany and
These comprise: political government.
1. The
"'spontaneous" consent given by the great masses of the
population to the general direction imposed
dominant fundamental group; this consent is on social life by the
he prestige (and consequent "historically" caused by
enjoys because of its confidence) which the dominant group
position and function in the
world of
2.he apparatus of state coercive production.
power which "legally" enforces
 The Formation of the Intellectuals 27

discipline on those groups who do not "consent" either actively or

asively. This apparatus 1s, however, constituted for the whole of
caciety in anticipation of moments of crisis of command and direction

when spontaneous consent has failed.

This way of posing the problem has as a result a considerable
extension of the concept of intellectual, but it is the only way which
enables one to reach a concrete approximation of reality. It also clashes
with preconceptions of caste. The function of organising social
hegemony and state domination certainly gives rise to a particular
division of labour and therefore to a whole hierarchy of qualifications
in some of which there is no apparent attribution of directive or
organisational functions. For example, in the apparatus of social and
state direction there exist a whole series of jobs of a manual and
instrumental character (non-executive work, agents rather than officials
or functionaries)." It is obvious that such a distinction has to be made
just as it is obvious that other distinctions have to be made as well.
Indeced, intellectual activity must also be distinguished in terms of its
intrinsic characteristics, according to levels which in moments of
extreme opposition represent a real qualitative difference - at the
highest level would be the creators of the various sciences, philosophy,
art, etc., at the lowest the most humble "administrators" and
wealth.
divulgators of pre-existing, traditional, accumulated intellectual
In the modern world the category of intellectuals, understood in
this sense, has undergone an unprecedented expansion. The democratic-
which
oucaucratic system has given rise to a great mass of functions
e not all justified by the social necessities production,
of though
necessities of the dominant
a r e justified by the political
1sb
conception ot the unproductive
nental group. Hence Loria's

ere again military organisation offers a model of complex gradations

DEtween subaltern officers, senior officers and general statt; not to mention

c NCOs, whose importance is greater than is generally admitted. It is

and indeed that it is the
worth observing that all these parts feel a solidarity
1Ower strata that display the most blatant esprit de corps, from which they
aerive a certain "conceit"12 which is apt to lay them open to jokes and

witticisms.
28 Antonio Gramsci

Worker (but unproductive in relation to whom and to what mode

Or
production?), a conception which could in part be justified it one
takes account of the fact that these massesexploit their position to
take for themselves a large cut out of the national income. Mass
formation has standardised individuals both psychologically and in
terms ofindividual qualification and has produced the same phenomena
as with other
standardised masses: competition which makes necessary
organisations for the defence of professions, unemployment,
production in the schools, emigration, etc.

b
Achille Loria
proponen (1857-19431 1
HEGEMONY (CIVIL SOCIETY) AND SEPARATION OF PowERS

The separation of powers, together with all the discussion provoked

by its realisation and the legal dogmas which its appearance brought
into being, is a product of the struggle between civil society and
Dolitical society in a specitic historical period. This period is
characterised by a certain unstable equilibrium between the classes,
which is a result of the fact that certain categories of intellectuals (in
the direct service of the State, especially the civil and military
bureaucracy) are still too closely tied to the old dominant classes. In
ocher words, there takes place within the society what Croce calls the
"perpetual conflict between Church and State," in which the Church
is taken as representing the totality of civil society (whereas in fact
it is only an element of diminishing importance within it), and the
State as representing every attempt to crystallise pernmanently a

particular stage of development, a particular situation. In this sense,

the Church itself may become State, and the conflict may occur
between on the one hand secular (and secularising) civil sociery, and
on the other State/Church (when the Church has become an integral
part of the State, of political society monopolised by a specific
in order the better to
privileged group, which absorbs the Church
preserve its monopoly with the support of that zone ot "civil sociery"

which the Church represents) for political and

Essential importance of the separation of powers
cconomic liberalism; the entire liberal ideology, with
its strengths and
ts weaknesses, can be encapsulated in the principle of the separation
Or powers, and the source of liberalisms weakness then becomes
Pparent: it is the bureaucracy-i.e. the crystallisation of the leading
personnel - which exercises coercive power, and at a certain point
t becomes a caste. Hence the popular demand tor making all posts
liberalism, and at the same time
elective a demand which is extreme
ts dissolution (principle of the permanent Constituent Assembly, etc.;
30 Antonio Gramsci

in
Republics, the election at fixed intervals of the Head of State gives
the illusion of satisfying this elementary popular demand).
Unity of the State in the differentiation of powers: Parliament
more
closely linked to civil society; the judiciary power, between
government and Parliament, represents the continuity of the written
law (even against the government). Naturally all three powers are also
organs of political hegemony, but in different degrees:
1. Legislature; 2. Judiciary;
3. Executive. It is to be noted how lapses
in the administration of
justice make an especially disastrous
impression on the public: the hegemonic apparatus is more sensitive
in this sector, which
arbitrary actions on the
to
part of the police and
political administration may also be referred.
[1930-32]
Notes

The Italian word here is ceti" which

does not carry
connotations as "strata', but which we have been quite the same
forced to translate in that
way for lack of alternatives. It should be
noted that Gramsci tends, for
reasons of censorship, to avoid
using the word class in contexts where its
Marxist overtones would be
apparent, preferring (as for
sentence) the more neutral "social example in this
always a euphemism for "class", and group". The
word "group", however, is not
to avoid
phrase "fundamental social ambiguity Gramsci uses the
he is group" when he wishes
referring to one or other of the to
emphasise the fact that
proletariat) defined in strict Marxist terms major social classes
relations of by position in the (bourgeoisie,
its
role are often
production. Class groupings which do fundamental
not have this
described as "castes" fundamental
on the
other hand, which (aristocracy, etc.). The word
standard Italian sense of occurs on this page, Gramsci "category
in the also
more membersof trade or tends to use
generally. Throughout this a
as
literally possible (see
as edition we have profession, though also
Smith note on rendered Gramsci's
cit
op. xii-iv). Gramsci's usage
2 See note on
Gramsci's
Terminology, in Hoare ana
3
Usually translated in Terminology, in Hoare and
English version of English as "ruling class", Smith op. cit
Mosca's which xiii-iv.
1939). Elementi (G. is
also the title of the
Gaetano
Michels, one of theMosca (1858-1941) was,Mosca, The
Ruling Class, New York
major early Italian together with Pareto and
exponents of the th
 The Formation of
the Intellectuals 31
Flites, Although sympathetic to tascism, Mosca was basically a
who saw the Elite in rather more static conservative,
terms than did some of his fellows.
4 Natably in Southern Italy. Gramscis general
argument, here else-where as
in the Quaderni, is that the
person of peasant origin who becomes an
intellectual" (priest, lawyer, etc.) generally thereby ceases
linkedto his class of origin. One of the essential differences to be organically
he Catholic Church and the
between, say,
revolutionary party of the working class lies
inthe fact that, ideally, the proletariat should be able to
generate its own
organic" intellectuals within the class and who remain intellectuals
of their
class.

5 Heads of FIAT and Montecatini (Chemicals) respectively.

6 For Frederick Taylor and his notion of the manual worker as a "trained
gorilla", see Gramsci's essay Americanism and Fordism, pp. 277-318 of Hoare
and Smith.
7 i.e. Man the maker (or tool-bearer) and Man the thinker.
8 The Ordine Nuovo, the magazine edited by Gramsci during his days as a
militant in Turin, ran as a "weekly review of Socialist culture" in 1919 and
1920.
"Dirigente." This extremely condensed and elliptical sentence contains a
number of key Gramscian ideas : on the possibility of proletarian cultural
hegemony through domination of the work process, on the distinction
berween organic intellectuals of the working class and traditional intellectuals
from outside, on the unity of theory and practice as a basic Maxist
postulate, etc.
0The Italian school system above compulsory level is based on a division
between academic ("classical" and "scientific") education and vocational

training for professional purposes.Technical and, at the academic level,

industrial areas.
colleges tend
Scientitic to be concentrated in the Northern
and higher
11 the word is applied to the middle
JHzOnari: in Italian usage
("amministratori )
ccnelons of the bureaucracy. Conversely "administrators"
"administer" the
e here (end of paragraph) to mean people who merely
is a translation of
aecisions of others. The phrase "non-executive work
refers to distinctions within
"im
pegodi ordine e non di concetto" which
clerical work.
12 boria". This is idea of Vico.
a reference to an
13 is in fact an invention of
notion of the unproductive labourer"
not
ne

Loria's but has its in Marx's definitions

origins of productive and unproductive
Loria, in his characteristic way,
both vulgarised and
our in Capital, which
claimed as his own discovery.
32 Antonio Gramsci
Powers
of
and Seperation
iegemony (Civil Society)
Lois on the basis
in his Esprit des
Montesquieu he saw it
1h e doctrine devcloped by in England
as

system
contemporary
bourgeois political f
fuun
ncct
tiio
onns a
arre
e exercised
exercised
Or the
and judiciary
executive, legislative the A m e r i c a n
Constitution
whereby inspired
other. The principle
independently ofeach
it.
and others modelled
on