Marxism: Gramsci (Lexicon)

Question 1

Intellectual

Answer 1

He stated that all men are intellectuals, in that all have intellectual and rational faculties, but not all men have the social function of intellectuals.

He saw modern intellectuals not as talkers, but as practically-minded directors and organizers who produced hegemony through ideological apparatuses such as education and the media

Question 2

Hegemony (specific)

Answer 2

Gramsci saw the capitalist state as being made up of two overlapping spheres, a ‘political society’ (which rules through force) and a ‘civil society’ (which rules through consent).

Question 3

Civil society

Answer 3

consists of the family, the education system, trade unions, etc.

Gramsci claims the capitalist state rules through force plus consent: political society is the realm of force and civil society is the realm of consent

Question 4

“The Prince”

Answer 4

aka “The Prince” in Machiavelli’s work

decides that in modern political language, it could be a “Head of State, or the leader of the government, but it could also be a political leader whose aim is to conquer a State, or to found a new type of State” (252-3)

could be translated into “political party” and “exercises the hegemonic function and hence that of holding the balance between the various interests of “civil society”’ (253)

Question 5

The State

Answer 5

equals “political society + civil society, in other words hegemony protected by the armor of coercion” (263)

Question 6

political society + civil society =

Answer 6

The state

Question 7

Hegemony (general)

Answer 7

political or cultural dominance or authority over others, especially by one country or social group

one of Marxism’s most important ideas, according to Gramsci