humanistic marxism

Question 1

humanistic marxism - neo-marxism

Answer 1

Gramsci - bourgeoisie maintain domination in two ways

coercion - use of force through army, police, prisons and courts

consent - propagating ideologies - ideas and values - justify dominant of ruling class and persuade proletariat to accept it

ruling by idoelogy hegemony

Question 2

disagreements with marxism - domination of bourgeoisie

Answer 2

did not see domination of bourgeoisie as total and monolithic

hegemony - unlikely ever be complete

• rather than monolithin and all powerful - bourgeoisie often divided and too few so need to form alliance to create powerful bloc - difficult to maintain a coherent ideology
• rather than brainwashed into passive false consciousness - proletariat have dual consciousness - one reflect bourgeois ideology and other reflects exploitation of everyday experience

Question 3

disagreements with marxism - economic forces

Answer 3

disagreed that economic forces along bring revolutionary change

as long as proletariat accept hegemony - no revolution

marxists need to win hearts by connecting to popular culture for alliances to form to construct counter-hegemonic bloc

then can become organic intellectuals

Question 4

strengths

Answer 4

gramsci moves away from economic determinism and leans towards social action approach to society

gramsci’s ideas and dual consciousness and counter-hegemony - influenced a number of other neo-marxists eg willis

Question 5

limitations

Answer 5

Althusser’s criticisms:

Gramsci’s belief that we are free agents is false - we believe we possess freewill and choice - false consciousness produced by ideological state apparatus

socialism will not therefore come about become of change in consciousness but through over-determination

Question 6

humanistic marxism is relevant

Answer 6

concept of power bloc influential - many use this idea to point to alliances of powerful groups eg Leveson Inquiry into news international and phone hacking scandal - reveals close social contacts between murdoch’s media empire and senior politicians in government

lobbying and paying for access allows for close relationships between rich individuals, large businesses and politicians

Question 7

humanistic marxism is not relevant

Answer 7

postmodernism - metanarrative - tries to arrive at grand explanation for society - no longer possible
popular culture is not used as political resistance because there is no dominant ideology - popular culture is polysemic carrying many meanings