Antonio Gramsci

A Puzzling Phenomenon
• His long confinement resulted in one of the most
significant contributions to the Marxist thought
• The dominant view among Marxists was that
workers would acquire revolutionary
consciousness “spontaneously” from the
material conditions of their lives.
• Gramsci sought to explain a puzzling historical
phenomenon: apathy and indifference of the
masses.
 Theory of Hegemony
• Hegemony means political leadership based on
the consent of the lead.
• The consent is secured by the diffusion and
popularization of the worldview of the ruling
class.
• Hegemonic ideas were not powerful enough to
eliminate class differences and struggle.
• Yet, they were obviously capable of muting them
sufficiently to allow class societies to function.
How to Spread the
Ideas?
The Role of Mass Media
The Role
of Mass
Media
Parliamentary Democracy
 Parliamentary Democracy
• The parliamentary game was an enormously
effective means for creating the illusion of
popular sovereignty.
• Powerful social classes have a great advantage
in the electoral struggle.
• This is because they have superior
organization, information and means of
communication.
 Consent and Force
• Force and consensus are not mutually exclusive but
interdependent realities.
• When great socioeconomic-sociopolitical
transformations-crises are taking place, there is no
general agreement about how society should be
organized.
• In such moments, the intellectuals often fail to create
hegemony.
• Hence, the ruling class falls back on the state’s coercive
apparatus which disciplines those who do not consent.
Economic Boom in the 1920s
Great
Depression
1929 Depression
The Rise of Fascist Regimes in Europe
The Rise of Fascist Regimes in Europe
Turkey
 Organic Crisis
• Sometimes the ruling class’ hegemony
underwent a crisis.
• People cease to believe the words of national
leaders and begin to abandon the traditional
parties.
• The precipitating factor is frequently the failure
of the ruling class in some large undertaking,
such as war, for which it demanded the consent
and sacrifice of the people.
 Opportunities and Dangers
• In combating the crisis, the intellectuals of the
ruling class may resort to all sorts of mystification.
• They could blame the failure of the ruling on an
opposition party or on ethnic-racial minorities.
• This is a very dangerous moment in civic life.
• If the oppositional forces fail to impose their own
solution, the old ruling class may seek salvation in
a “divine leader”.