Neo-Gramscian Perspective
Neo-Gramscian perspective
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Neo-gramscian perspective is based on the
work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci
(1891-1937).
Gramsci was one of the founding members of
the Italian Communist Party. He was
porisoned in 1926 for his political activities
and spent the rest of his time in the prison
and wrote “Prison Notebooks (1971)”
Why there was no communist
revolution in Western Europe?
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The key question Gramsci dealt with was why
it was so difficult to promote revolution in
Western Europe. Because, Marx had
predicted that revolution and transition to
socialism would occur first in the advanced
capitalist countries. However, it was not
Europe but comparatively bacward Russia
that realized revolution.
What went wrong in Europe? Gramsci’s
answer to this question revolves around his
use of the concept of hegemony.
Concept of Hegemony
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Hegemony is most frequently used to
describe the most powerful state in the
international system. But, Gramsci’s use
of hegemony is related to his
understanding of power, which is
broader and richer than realists: a
mixture of coercion and consent.
Marxist Approach to
Hegemony
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In understanding how the prevailing order
was maintained, Marxists concentrated
almost exclusively on the coercive practices
and capabilities of the state. State was seen
as a means of opressing one class by another.
Based on this understanding, it was coercion
that prevented the exploited society
from rising up and changing the system
that makes them suffer.
Gramsci’s Reinterpreting
Hegemony
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Gramsci recognized that while this was true in less developed
countries like Russia, it was not the case in the Western
Europe. Here the system was maintained not merely by
coercion, but also through consent. Consent is created
and recreated by the hegemony of the ruling elite in
society.
It is hegemony that makes the political, cultural, and
moral values of the dominant group to become widely
dispersed throughout society and to be accepted by
subordinate groups and classes as their own.
For Gramsci, dominant ideologies are institutionalized in society
as they become the “common sense”.
Gramsci’s emphasis on civil
society
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Civil society is the network of
institutions and practices in society that
enjoy some autonomy from the state,
and through which groups and
individuals organize, represent and
express themselves to each other and
to the state. These include media,
education system, churches,
voluntary organizations, etc.
Gramsci’s focus on the
Superstructure
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Superstructure should be emphasized
because although the structure of
society may be a reflection of social
relations of production in the economic
base, superstructure (political and
cultural practices) determines whether
the society is prone to change and
transform itself.
Gramsci’s Historic Bloc
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Historic bloc implies a relation between the cultural
and the political and the economic and also requires
an organic link between people and
intellectuals, governors and governed, leaders
and led.
Historic bloc reflects the way in which leading
social forces within a specific national context
establish a relationship over contending social
forces.
Historical bloc is defined as a situation in which
various classes and factions of them are related and
implicitly one mode of production is dominant
Counter Hegemonic Struggle
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If the hegemony of the ruling class is a key
element in the perpetuation of its dominance,
then society can only be transformed if that
hegemonic position is successfully challenged.
This entails a counter-hegemonic struggle
in civil society, in which the prevailing
hgegemony is undermined , allowing an
alternative historic bloc to be
constructed.
Robert Cox and the Analysis of
World Order
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Robert Cox introduced Gramsci to the study of world politics. He
criticized prevailing theories of international relations and
International Political Economy and tried to develop an
alternative framework for the analysis of world politics.
His article “Social Forces, States, and World
Orders:Beyond International Relations Theory” (1981):
If ideas and values are a reflection of a particular set of social
relations, and are transformed as those relations themselves are
transformed, then this suggests that all knowledge must reflect
a certain context, a certain time and space. In other words,
knowledge cannot be objective and timeless as neo-realists
argue. For Cox, “theory is always for someone and for
some purpose”.
How to transform the world
order
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Realists claim to describe the world as it is, and as it
always will be, but in fact they are reinforcing the
ruling hegemony in the current world order.
Cox attempts to develop an emnacipatory theoretical
understanding of world order that emphasişze both
the sources of stability in a given system and also the
dynamics of processes of transformation.
In this context, Cox benefits from Gramsci’s
concept of hegemony and transfers it to the
international realm, arguing that hegemony is
important for maintaining stability.
How to transform the world
order
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Cox argues that sucessive dominant
powers in the international system
have shaped a world order that
suits their interests , and have
done so not only as a result of their
coercive capabilities, but also
because they managed to generate
broad consent for that order even
among the disadvanted groups.
Hegemonic Idea:Free Trade
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The hegemons like the United Kingdom and the United
States used the hegemonic idea of free trade. Their
claim that this system benefits everyone has been so
widely accepted that it has attained “common sense”
status. However, free trade benefits the hegemonic power as it
is the most efficient producer in the global economy, and it can
produce goods which are competitive in all markets. The
peripheral countries do not benefit from freee trade as much as
the hegemon does. As Marxists argue free trade prevents the
development of the periphery.
The power of the United States is based on the hegemony of
the neo-liberalism.
The hegemony of Neoliberalism
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Neo-liberal policies are accepted as the norm throughout the
world. Set of policies most closely associated with the neoliberal
project is: privatization, reduction of state spending, liberalization of
trade and capital… these policies are also known as “Washington
Consensus”
The adoption of neo-liberal policies by Third world countries: spending
on health and education decreased, they were forced to rely more on
the export of raw materials and import manufactured goods of
developed countries.
Moreover, as third world countries devalued their currency as part of
neo-liberal policies, the price of their exported raw materials decrease.
When third world countries privatize their public enterprises, American
or European companies buy them at relatively cheap prices.
Why?
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If neo-liberal policies have such negative results, why
Third world countries adopted it so widely?
Coercion: debt crisis between the Third World and
the West in the 1970s and 1980s. This debt crisis
resulted from excessive and unwise lending by
Western Banks. Third World countries are unable to
pay the interests of these debts and also the debt
itself.They applied to IMF for assistance. In order to
receive money from the IMF, they had to implement
neo-liberal policies.
Key points
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Gramsci shifted the focus of Marxist analysis
towards superstructural phenomena.Gramsci
explored the processes by which consent for
a particular social and political system was
produced through the operation of
hegemony. Hegemony allows the ideas of the
ruling elite to become widespread.
Cox attempted to internationalize Gramsci’s
thought by transferring his concepts such as
hegemony to the global context.