Gramsci and the concept of hegemony at the national and international level

Abstract

This essay presents Gramsci's concept of hegemony, both in its national and international dimensions, showing, finally, how Gramscian concepts represent a useful analytical tool for understanding contemporary political economy. Returning to the critical edition of Quaderni del Carcere and grounding Gramsci's work in Marx, the construction of hegemony at the national level will be understood as a process promoted and executed by the 'fundamental class', and it will be emphasized that its realization includes the conquest of the state. Once realized, hegemony will be understood as a dialectical unity between leadership and domination, between consensus and coercion, implying a very sophisticated form of exercise and maintenance of power by the dominant class over the subordinate classes. Regarding the conception of hegemony at the international level, it will be emphasized that, while neo-Gramscian analyses (Cox, Gills) largely transposed a - problematic - interpretation of Gramsci's concepts to the international level, the Notebooks already provide an understanding of this form of hegemony that differs substantially from that put forward in the existing literature. Although interrelated, hegemony in its national dimension differs from international hegemony. It is exercised by nation states that enjoy what I call 'relative geopolitical autonomy', using both consensus and coercion. Elaborating then the concept - hitherto approached by 'neo-Gramscian' and World System theorists - from the perspective of 'classical Marxism', and thus grounded in Capital, it is argued that as a result of the Law of Value and capitalism's inherent drive to expand, imperialist states may attempt to become hegemonic over other (imperialist) rivals in order to preserve the accumulation of 'their' capitals. Furthermore, understanding the construction of hegemony as a process, it is argued that its full realization involves economic as well as political and military elements, and that this form of hegemony should be differentiated from weaker forms, which I call 'Sturm und Drang hegemony'. It concludes by presenting how the concepts studied could be applied to the analysis of the world political economy, taking the vicissitudes of US hegemony as an example.