What do You Understand by Gramsci's Notion of Hegemony - Assignment Example

Social Science- What do you understand by Gramscis notion of hegemony? Ever since humans originated, evolved and developed, their tendency to dominate has also developed with them, but in the negative sense. That is, when the whole world came under his/her domain, the human donned the role of a dominant and many time lead the world to doom. And, when this dominant attitude is ‘immersed’ in the minds of the humans, who head and manage a country, society, organization etc, etc… and uses that attitude to impose their will, policies, culture etc, then it known by another term, hegemony. That is, hegemony will be visible when individual with his/her group, mostly in the form of a country try to dominate and enforce his/her will on others. Some individuals or groups will inherit this dominating characteristics or factors during their ‘birth’ itself. Dominating factors like money, status, reputation etc. will be sought after by everyone, but it is also the ones, which would make the individual, dominate in the negative sense. Even, if they don’t acquire it inborn, they will have, the situations and tools on their side, which will make them dominant. This paper will discuss Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, what are its origins, what it says, what are its influences, how it can be counteracted and how it is put into practice in our world. Antonio Gramsci, a great Italian thinker, was an avid Marxist and is known for various theories on Marxism. But, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini jailed him for airing his opposition to fascism. He was incarcerated for about twenty years, which is also his last years in the prisons of Milan and Rome. During that time only, he wrote and completed around 32 notebooks covering different subjects that interested him. That is, in 1929, Gramsci after receiving the permission to write begin his "Prison Notebooks" (Quaderni di carcere). All these notebooks were rich in ideas and were smuggled out from the prison, circulated within Marxist circles and finally published. The publishing part was done only after the war, and he was no more then. The main theme of his notebooks was the development of a new Marxist theory, which is applicable to the conditions of advanced capitalism and also to offset it. After his experiences in Russia, Gramsci thought that Marxist theory of power was based only on force and coercion, to control and manage people. “It is said that the concept of hegemony (gegemoniya) was first used as part of a slogan of the Russian Social-Democratic movement from 1890 to 1917” (Stillo 1999). But, while serving the sentence in the jail, Gramsci (1971) began his notebooks with the insight that, most of the time; political power in liberal democracies is exercised not through government use of force, but through a dominant world-view, or ideology. And, he states that, a country needs both these controls for it to survive and stand up, with Hegemony playing a subtle role. “Domination, which referred to direct physical coercion by police and armed forces and hegemony which referred to both ideological control and more crucially, consent” (Burke 1999). In the narrow sense, it applies mainly to a nations political domination over another nation or group. It is actually a set of strategies implemented through various means like violence, media, money etc, etc… by which dominant groups strive to secure the consent of subordinate groups directly or indirectly, legally or illegally. And according to Antonio Gramsci, hegemony is also exercised culturally. That is, the dominant culture through its methods, values, assumptions, strong points etc, etc… will infuse, involve, manage and control all aspects of another group of people and their culture. This is the Gramsci notion of hegemony. In fact, Gramsci states that the dominant culture will condition as well as shape the life of most people in that culture. He also declared that the dominant group should maintain its domination, mainly by the consent of the people and should only use its coercive apparatus of forces of law and order, as a last resort. By ideological hegemony Gramsci means, the process, whereby a dominant class contrives to retain political power by manipulating public opinion, creating, what Gramsci refers to as the popular consensus (Jones 2006). He also argues that dominance in economic relations of production is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for social dominance. “Direct ownership or control of the means of production is no longer the exclusive criterion for serving the interests of capital” (Sklair 2002). And in order to accentuate this cultural hegemony, Gramsci proposes another strategy called passive revolution. In this so-called revolution, the state plays the initiator role, with the people playing a marginal role. Antonio Gramsci believed that by a variety of activities, including the exercise of a skill, or knowledge of a language, every individual demonstrates the capacity for intellectual activity (Joll 1977). Gramscis example of this is the Risorgimento, other wise known as the unification of Italy. In the unification process, the people played only minor parts, with the main role essayed by the Piedmontese monarchy and army. He also argues that dominance in economic angle is necessary, and it should play a co-ordinate role with cultural dominance. Gramsci shows the significance of the economic dominance of the hegemonic group in this quote, “for though hegemony is ethical-political, it must also be economic, must necessarily be based on the decisive function exercised by the leading group in the decisive nucleus of economic activity” (Gramsci 1971). Then, he describes the two different modes, through which, the hegemony is imposed, with culture as the ‘cement’, which builds or establishes the hegemony on the subordinates. Firstly, Coercive control, it concentrates on using force or threat. The countries or groups, whose degree of hegemony is low or fractured or threatened, mainly carry it out. And it happens in many countries particularly the ultra conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia. That is, their culture, which is based on their religion and also merged with the religion, is safeguarded by the state through various means. The people of these countries hold on to their culture because of their will and also due no choices, but foreign citizens who are on a short visit or stay, are also coerced and forced to hold on to the country’s culture, even if they wish to do otherwise. That is, these countries try to show their hegemony through their culture, but in the guise of protecting the culture. So, the people visiting these countries are forced to avoid their lifestyles like dress, habits or even communication with opposite sex etc. So, this form of hegemony, which is exercised culturally, is visible even now. Another one of Gramsci theories on hegemony is consensual control, which arises when individuals or even countries voluntarily assimilate the worldview of the dominant group. And one of the examples is Oscars, the movie awards given in United States of America. That is, Oscars are given by an American institution, for films made by the American studios, with the exception of only one category that is, Best Foreign language film category. So, it is essentially and entirely a National film awards of America. But, many countries and its people view Oscars as the top award of the world cinema, and its film people always aspire to win it. Nothing in the wrong in the aspirations, but viewing it has the top award of the world cinema gives the view that they are voluntarily assimilating the world view of the dominant group, in this case Americans especially the Hollywood. And the fact is, this view is assimilated and spread because of the initiatives and campaigns carried out by the dominant group through the tools of mass media and other means. So here also, the dominant groups views are portrayed, as the view of the others, with culture being used as the major tool. “Individuals "voluntarily" assimilate the world-view or hegemony of the dominant group” (Ransome 1992) And finally, Gramsci also gives his views on the ways of challenging this dominant hegemony. And, he states that, those who wished to break that ideological bond of hegemony had to build up a ’counter hegemony’ to that of the ruling class. Because, if the new imposed culture has a long run, it would gain popular support and legitimacy. So, to break this stronghold of hegemony there has to be major steps. And this is what had happened in many countries in the name of revolutions, from Russian, French to Chinese revolution as well as regime change. So, Gramsci coming from a Marxist background, he is widely regarded as "the greatest of western Marxists," to use Tom Nairns words, had given views, which have applications in today’s world as well. Reference Burke, B. 1999, Antonio Gramsci and informal education, the encyclopedia of informal education, Retrieved 04 February, 2007 from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et- gram.htm. Gramsci, A 1971, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, International Publishers, New York. Joll, J 1977, Gramsci, Fontana, London. Jones, S 2006, Antonio Gramsci, Routledge, London Nairn, T, Antonu Su Gobbu, Retrieved 4 February 2007, http://www.italnet.nd.edu/gramsci/igsn/articles/a01_6.shtml Ransome, P 1998, Antonio Gramsci: An Introduction, Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York. Simon, R1982, Gramscis Political Thought, Lawrence and Wishart, London. Sklair, L 2002, Globalization, Capitalism and its alternative, Oxford University press. Oxford. Stillo, M 1999, Presented in seminar for Communications Research Methodologies, MA in Communication Studies, University of Leeds, Retrieved 4 February 2007 from http://www_theory_org_uk Resources Antonio Gramsci.htm Read More