The meaning of the conquest of hegemony in Antonio Gramsci

Abstract

The question on the meaning of the expression conquest of hegemony is relevant since, according to Antonio Gramsci, to avoid an ephemeral takeover of political institutions or a dictatorship, the takeover must be preceded or in company of that conquest. This paper analyzes diverse paragraphs from the Quaderni del carcere, in which Gramsci uses the concept of hegemony. In these paragraphs there is a displacement of the meaning of this term from a more limited use, which refers to a political alliance between the proletariat and other subaltern classes, towards a sense in which it is amplified in two ways: on one hand, Gramsci emphasize the ideological and cultural role of this alliance; on the other hand, hegemony is used as a theoretical concept capable of revealing the mechanisms used by the bourgeoisie to rule over subaltern classes. After discussing what means, in each case, that the hegemony is in the hands of the bourgeoisie, we investigate the conquest of hegemony as a task belonging to the proletariat. The hypothesis is that the conquered hegemony is not exerted over the despoiled bourgeoisie.