Gramsi- wrote his thoughts in "prison notebooks"
- Intro: Antonio Gramsci is widely celebrated as the most original political thinker in Western Marxism , second only to Marx himself. he is considered as father of Neo-Marxism.
- Context: a contemporary of Mussolini and wanted to find out Why Marxist predictions didn’t come true and why capitalism rather than collapsing further prospered.
- Neo-Marxism(inspired by Young Marx) wanted human emancipation in its truest sense and not just economic revolution. But to be truly emancipated you must come out of the mental hegemony of the capitalists. This mental hegemony is created through various institutions like the state, civil society, church. These form part of super structure and hence Gramsci has been called as the theoretician of superstructure.
- Influence-
- Benetton Croce.
Gramsci appreciated Croce’s skillful use of the scholarly journal and press “to saturate the intellectual life of Italy with a single point of view, a particular culture” and thereby bring about ideological and social change.
- His ideas:
- Says Marx overemphasised on the role of base structure and undermined the superstructure
- The political theory of the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, centers around the concept of cultural hegemony, the indoctrinated “common sense” or belief system by which a dominant class controls the oppressed.
- Gramsci sought to understand the techniques of “bourgeois hegemony” in order to replace the cultural hegemony with one that would serve the interests of the proletariat
- Role of state is the protection of capitalist class. This protection of the capitalist class is not just done by state but also by civil society
- Civil society is first layer of protection of capitalists and state the second.
- Civil society helps in manufacturing consent and building hegemony of capitalists. The superiority of bourgeoisie was made common sense by organic intellectuals.
- Thus, the civil society plays an important role in manufacturing consent through the institutions of civil society that is family, school and church (structures of legitimation) which familiarise the citizens with the rules of behaviour and teach them to show natural respect to the authority of the ruling classes
- These structures lend legitimacy to the rule of the bourgeois class.
- On the other hand the state represented the second level of power (coercive power) which becomes operational only when the ideological domination (hegemony) fails.
- According to him it was easier to bring 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia since civil society was not well developed and hence state, that used instruments of coercion remained transparent to the citizens. However in western societies where the civil society is well developed, the state remains opaque and hence it is not easy to bring socialist revolution.
- why no revolution: the attraction is so strong that workers do not hate the capitalists. His problem is only that he himself is not a capitalist. Values of capitalist class becomes the values of worker class. This is close to MN Srinivas concept of Sanskritisation where the dalits want to emulate the practices of Brahmans and not resist them.
- Marx said only workers need to revolt. Gramsci is favouring a coalition of classes. Like capitalists rule with tieing up with church fathers,intellectuals
- USA rules not just by military power but by Hollywood,silicon valley,Harvard,etc
- Gramsci's hegemony is the inspiration behind nation's pursuing soft power.
- Noam Chomsky in his book “Manufacturing consent writes about how the mass media plays into the hands of elites. He gives ex of how USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan and US’s invasion of Vietnam were shown in different lights.
- To fight capitalism
- War of position- build counter hegemony. Protracted war. Wants workers to build their own organic intellectual( those that come from the same class like engineers,scientists,managers are the organic intellectuals). Gramsci looks at European history and says traditional intellectuals were church fathers (those who did not come from amongst the masses but Become leaders of particular classes by ideological assuming the responsibility of those classes )Initially they resisted but then were co-opted by the bourgeoisie class to form “historical class. Workers need their own organic intellectuals like supervisors who can put in public domain their side of story. They must also bring traditional intellectuals to their side to form alternative coalition.
- War of manouvre - direct action
- Gandhi's critic of western civilization was his war of position, by giving counter hegemony of swadeshi, satyagraha. Quit India movement was war of manouvre.
- Two schools of Neo Marxism-
- Critical or Frankfurt school-
- culture most imp part of superstructure that affects base structure.
- For them the mass culture produced by films,music made people intellectually inactive and politically passive , as they allowed mass produced ideologies and values to wash over them and infiltrate their consciousness.
- Herbert Marcuse argued that consumerism maintains itself through a creation of false needs that only the products of capitalism can satisfy
- critical school scholars like max Aorkheimer, Theodore Adorno and Herbert Marcuse has shown how capitalism is surviving by making capitalism as a mass culture.
- Structural school-
- Inspired Marxists like Nicos Poulantzas.
- Focuses on role of superstructure in shaping history. Says superstructure is not just a reflection of base but a structure in itself
- says Marx has overemphasized on the role of basic structure and undermined the culture and values that form the part of superstructure.
- Says relationship is reflexive and two way: If economic structure shapes the super structure, super structure plays the role in maintaining the economic structure. Culture is part of superstructure but it is also important as it helps to build hegemony in society.
Criticism:
- Althusser:
- Gramsci only talks about ideological state apparatus but forgets about the coercive state apparatus which is also needed to rule.
- He develops concept of interpellation from Gramsci’s concept of hegemony.
- Michael Focoult
- Gramsci has focussed only on the macro view of power but fails to take the micro view. We are not just under any power, we too exhert power. The flow of power in the society is multi dimensional.
- Conclusion:
N Bobbio calls him theoretician of superstructure. With his focus on role of superstructure and hegemony, Gramsci has given a new life to Marxism.