Hegemony

Marxian Theory's Precursory Formulations of Hegemony

Although the roots of understanding hegemony can be quite varied, Karl Marx laid the foundation of contemporary hegemony theory in numerous ways. As a critical theory that seeks to unveil capitalist exploitation, Marxism operates as a framework towards exposing imbalances of power, particularly among social classes. Most notably, Marx’ theories regarding ideology serve as a crucial basis for hegemony. Ideology represents a system of thought that is transmitted among a group of people, and while there are several purposes and functions for ideology, one clear aim of capitalist ideology is to both control and pacify the working class. Marx [Page 401]anticipated the concept of hegemony when he argued that the world view of the bourgeois would, through capitalism, become the dominant world view of society, and his theories regarding base and superstructure would serve as the clearest precursor to the hegemonic process, so clear, in fact, that Gramsci would utilize a variant of this paradigm in his own writing. In discussing the idea of base, Marx was referring to the material forces of society, especially the physical forces of production. These forces do not occur in isolation but instead are mediated by ideological and cultural superstructures. These superstructures refer to largely non-material forces, like ideology and hegemony, which inform the nature of production and steer the exploitative reins of capitalism.

Marx was not the only theorist who influenced Gramsci's powerful conception of hegemony. Vladimir Lenin and other Leninist theorists would prove to be among the first to offer an analysis of hegemony but would do so in a manner different from how hegemony is typically conceived. Drawing inspiration from Marx, Lenin and others would discuss hegemonic forces in an ideological fashion; however, these theorists were more fixated on how hegemony could be functionalized as a revolutionary force in discussing the ‘hegemony of the proletariat’. Similar to the Bolshevik concept of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ as a governmental force, the hegemony of the proletariat would link to a system of ideas that would unite the peasant class under the leadership of the proletariat in order to combat the dominant ideology of the bourgeois class. Leon Trotsky, a notable contemporary of Lenin, also spoke of how the hegemony of the proletariat should serve as the epistemology to provide the government direction. These discussions of hegemony, while certainly valuable, would prove ultimately unfruitful in the actual practice of the Soviet government, and the radical reimagining of hegemony performed by Gramsci would, in some sense, demonstrate why the hegemony of the proletariat never came to fruition.

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