Gramsci on Ideological Hegemony and Class Struggle

Abstract

Gramsci argued that the failure of the workers to make anti – capitalist revolution was due to the successful capture of the workers’ ideology, self-understanding, and organizations by the hegemonic culture. In other words, the perspective of the ruling class had been absorbed by the masses of workers. In advanced industrial societies hegemonic cultural innovations such as compulsory schooling, mass media, and popular culture had indoctrinated workers to a false consciousness. Instead of working towards a revolution that would truly serve their collective needs, workers in advanced societies were listening to the rhetoric of nationalist leaders, seeking consumer opportunities and middle-class status, embracing an individualist ethos of success through competition, and/or accepting the guidance of bourgeois religious leaders.

Gramsci did not contend that hegemony was either monolithic or unified. Instead, hegemony was portrayed as a complex layering of social structures. Each of these structures have their own mission and internal logic that allows its members to behave in a way that is different from those in different structures.