[1] Chantal Mouffe, Gramsci and Marxist Theory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979), p. 186. It is quite evident that Gramsci’s conception of ideological struggle could never be understood in class reductionist terms since it does not involve the confrontation between two already elaborated, closed world views each being the direct and exclusive expression of the two antagonistic classes. Accordingly, he did not downplay the importance of ideological struggle in the totality of the class struggle, including economic and political struggle. . Similarly, it would seem that “ideological discourses” have more of a class character than “ideological elements” would. Gramsci’s linking of the reality of class rule and class power with the equally real amalgam of practices and ideal principles of behavior, conformity, and law, is well synthesized in the specific connection between his concepts of ideology and hegemony, in particular, the concepts of “organic ideology” and the “organic intellectual.” It should not be overlooked that conferring upon the superstructures and indeed ideology a great degree of efficacy and even materiality within the social totality of class society is in the tradition of Marx’s notion of ideology. As national-popular ideological elements these terms are important in that, held by the subalterns, they serve as the essential links between the leaders and the led in a national context. dialectical) understanding of class rule and class power from which sound revolutionary practice can evolve. Incidentally, the economic struggle of the proletariat even precedes historically the “purely political” phase. [12] Thus, the organic intellectual “gives his class homogeneity and awareness of its own function, in the economic field and on the social and political levels.”[13] In addition, their interests are “more nearly identical with those of the dominant classes [they identify with] . This state of balance consists of a coalition of classes constituting an organic totality within which the use of force is risky unless there emerges an organic crisis which threatens the hegemonic position and the ruling position of the leading class in the hegemonic system. The concept of hegemony first appeared in Gramsci’s Notes on the Southern Question (1926), where it was defined as a system of class alliance in which a “hegemonic class” exercised political leadership over “subaltern classes” by “winning them over.” The concept made allusion to the proletariat in Italy in terms of such a “winning over”: the proletariat had to free itself of its class corporatism so as to embrace other classes, notably the peasants, in a system of alliances within which it could then genuinely become the leading element in the society.

On the one hand, with concepts such as “organic ideology,” “civil society” and “political society,” “organic intellectuals,” “hegemony,” etc., as well as his unique distinction between political society and civil society, Gramsci brought new theoretical foundations into truly dialectical Marxist revolutionary theory. 27, March-April 1982 On the other hand, coercion rests at the level of the state, more specifically at the level of “political society.” Accordingly, hegemonic rule, characterized by the predominance of consensus over coercion, represents in broad terms a balance, an equilibrium between “political society” and “civil society.” Needless to say, for Gramsci the state embodies “the hegemony of one social group over the whole of society exercised through so-called private organizations, such as the church, trade unions, schools, etc.,”[2] in balance with the ensemble of public (coercive) organizations such as the state, the bureaucracy, the military, the police, and the courts.


Undoubtedly, Gramsci must have the credit for bringing the notion of ideology within the realm of truly genuine, revolutionary Marxism. than the traditional intellectuals.”[14] But what was the basis of Gramsci’s classification of intellectuals on “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions?

Civil society is where bourgeois ‘hegemony’ is reproduced in cultural life through the media, universities, and religious institutions to ‘manufacture consent’ and legitimacy (Heywood … Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971. [7] Chantal Mouffe, Gramsci and Marxist Theory, p. 180. For Gramsci, the working class must, before actually exercising state power, attain leadership–that is, “establish its claim to be a ruling class in the political, cultural, and ’ethical’ fields.”[4] But for it to establish its claim to be a ruling class, the proletariat must first have become class conscious in the context of struggle for political power.
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Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. It would seem, therefore, that hegemony entails for a class its execution of a leadership role on the economic, political, moral, and intellectual levels vis-a-vis other classes in the system, coupled with the sacrificing of some of its corporate interests as a fundamental class precisely to facilitate its vanguard role. An organic ideology was formulated by these “organic intellectuals” through an “articulating principle” which, upon unifying the various ideological elements from the discourses of subaltern groups (classes and individuals) and forming from them a unified ideological system, became a “hegemonic principle.” Indeed, since two classes or, for that matter, two members of different classes, could adhere to or advocate the same ideological element and articulate it in their particular ideological discourses, it was conceivable for a solid class alliance to be forged through this process of ideological absorption. Most important, out of these foundations emerged new concepts that have given Marxism more consistency and relevance vis-a-vis contemporary Capitalist reality. Now, an “organic ideology” emanates from the dynamic function of articulation performed by social agents Gramsci called “organic intellectuals” of a hegemonic or potentially hegemonic class.

Of course, it was Gramsci who rectified the notion of ideology by overcoming both epiphenomenalism and class reductionism, and by redefining the term “ideology” in terms of practices, politico-ideological discourses, and elements. This crisis would only be resolved through the decisive capture and smashing of the state apparatus by the proletariat, the revolutionary class then to hold legitimate power. First Published: Theoretical Review No. Althusser, Louis. According to Gramsci the intellectuals are the “deputies” of the dominant group–the functionaries, exercising the subaltern but important functions of political government and social hegemony.

Gramsci’s concept of power is based simply on the two moments of power relations–Dominio (or coercion) and Direzione (or consensus). First of all, it presupposes that the “hegemonic class” takes into consideration the interests of the classes and groups over which it exercises its “hegemony.” Added to this, some equilibrium between the hegemonic class and the subaltern classes is entailed whereby the hegemonic class will be forced to make some sacrifices tangent to its corporate interests.

This function was as real in the recurring dynamics of a mode of production or productive system in “equilibrium” as it was in a system in “organic crisis.” In the latter case, of course, ideology was of relevance to the struggle for power in a rather decisive moment. Clearly, only then could the working class develop a higher consciousness of itself and other social classes. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979. [15] Yet, in the struggle of a class aspiring for hegemony the organic intellectuals created by that class operate on the level of pursuit for direct consensus and as such hold no position in the coercive political structures to operate on a coercive basis.

Specifically, this struggle for assimilation of the traditional intellectuals would be part of the ’war of position’ discussed in the previous section. Traditional intellectuals are those intellectuals linked to tradition and to past intellectuals; those who are not so directly linked to the economic structure of their particular society and, in fact, conceive of themselves as having no basis in any social class and adhering to no particular class discourse or political discourse. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971. A major historical problem posed by Gramsci and of great practical relevance to the proletariat in advanced capitalist countries is the fact that “although every social group develops its own organic intellectuals, the industrial proletariat has relied mostly on ’assimilated’ traditional intellectuals for leadership.”[17] Of course, Gramsci prescribed a solution to this problem, a solution that, in fact, became one of the principal aims of the “Ordine Nuovo” in Italy.

Yet this role of leadership must be devoted to the struggle against the existing hegemonic system, and the struggle itself waged on all three basic levels of society: (1) the economic, (2) the political, and (3) the cultural.

In the dialectical materialist tradition of Marx and Engels, Gramsci’s “philosophy of praxis” (despite any historicism) has re-delivered to the working class a more powerful theoretical weapon with which it is well equipped against the capitalist class in the class struggle. The terms “nationalism” and “patriotism,” both “national-popular” ideological elements, have different meanings depending on what fundamental class appropriates them and articulates them in its hegemonic discourse through the hegemonic principle. Nevertheless, an organic ideology is precisely that–organic, the product of an absorption of different important ideological elements belonging to no class in particular. Moreover, by defining the nature of class power in capitalist society through an elaboration of the dialectical relationship between the base and the superstructure, and, specifically, by outlining the essentials of sound revolutionary strategy which address the complex nature of class power and hegemony, these concepts meet the first criteria of “praxis,” namely, the proper (i.e. For Marx. Hegemony, to Gramsci, is the “cultural, moral and ideological” leadership of a group over allied and subaltern groups. Among these functionaries we find administrators and bureaucrats, industrial managers, politicians, and the already mentioned “organizers of culture.” Moreover, Gramsci classifies these intellectuals in two dimensions: the horizontal and the vertical dimensions. In its most inclusive meaning, expansive hegemony entails the successful creation of what Gramsci called a “collective national-popular will.” This itself involves the articulation of all “national-popular” ideological elements held in discourses by the subaltern national classes. London: New Left Books, 1977. The political importance of these intellectuals rests also in the fact that, normally, the organic intellectuals of a historically and realistically progressive class will be able to establish their “domination” over the intellectuals of other classes, and hence will be able to create a “system of solidarity” maintained so long as the progressive class remains “progressive.”. As mentioned earlier, the only conclusion that can be safely derived from this process of ideological struggle regarding the problem of its class basis is that it is precisely at the point of articulation through the hegemonic principle that ideological elements acquire a class character. This war is thus carried on at the level of civil society.

Luckacs, Georg.

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