POLITICAL HEGEMONY This week’s readings start with Antonio Gramsci who was a very influential Marxist theorist and politician that his ideas are still relevant today. Gramsci followed the Marx but he added much more to the Marxist tradition in terms of explaining why Western societies didn’t experience the revolution. He introduced the concepts of civil and political society as two main parts of the superstructure and most importantly he defined hegemony as the mixture of coercion and consent. Gramsci talks about structure and superstructure where structure reflects the fluctuations of politics and ideology in the society. Even though structures reflect economic and political conception within the society, superstructure is important in the
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Gramsci doesn’t degrade domination just to the direct one(physical force) but also includes indirect domination (cultural hegemony) I linked Thachil’s article to Gramsci’s idea of organic crisis if BJP couldn’t find a strategy to satisfy the interests of its elite core maybe as Gramsci suggested this could become “the crisis of the ruling class’s hegemony which occurs because ruling class has failed in some major political undertaking for which it has requested…” (p.252) BJP was able to adapt itself to new tasks and new epochs. Gramsci looks at the hegemony from a national perspective. In the World Bank reading, international system is discussed in the context of hegemony because as we know that institutions such as the World Bank and IMF are very useful tools to spread US/Western hegemony to the world. Although they deny the fact that they are guided by political objectives, studies like this one support the opposite idea. Hegemony is not just about hard power in this case hegemony is a soft power that uses indirect means to increase its power relative to others. The World Bank, from its foundation to today, reinforces certain ideas and regulations for the world economy and the countries whether they are developed, developing or undeveloped comply with the norms and enforcements of this institution. The system is shaped such a way that hegemony without showing its face directly, works in the background to make sure its power still effective in shaping the world system. In conclusion, these three readings show us the international, national and individual level effects of the hegemony in shaping the structure of the system directly and indirectly through different
Gramsci doesn’t degrade domination just to the direct one(physical force) but also includes indirect domination (cultural hegemony) I linked Thachil’s article to Gramsci’s idea of organic crisis if BJP couldn’t find a strategy to satisfy the interests of its elite core maybe as Gramsci suggested this could become “the crisis of the ruling class’s hegemony which occurs because ruling class has failed in some major political undertaking for which it has requested…” (p.252) BJP was able to adapt itself to new tasks and new epochs. Gramsci looks at the hegemony from a national perspective. In the World Bank reading, international system is discussed in the context of hegemony because as we know that institutions such as the World Bank and IMF are very useful tools to spread US/Western hegemony to the world. Although they deny the fact that they are guided by political objectives, studies like this one support the opposite idea. Hegemony is not just about hard power in this case hegemony is a soft power that uses indirect means to increase its power relative to others. The World Bank, from its foundation to today, reinforces certain ideas and regulations for the world economy and the countries whether they are developed, developing or undeveloped comply with the norms and enforcements of this institution. The system is shaped such a way that hegemony without showing its face directly, works in the background to make sure its power still effective in shaping the world system. In conclusion, these three readings show us the international, national and individual level effects of the hegemony in shaping the structure of the system directly and indirectly through different