Neo-Marxism Flashcards
Who was Gramsci, concept of hegemony?
-Humanist marxist, introduced the concept of hegemony (ideological or moral leadership, dominance, or rule a group of persons over another) to explain how the rc maintain their dominance over other classes.
-Believed P must formulate a counter hegemony to win leadership from B
Why did Gramsci reject Marxs idea of economic determinism for a revolution to take place?
-He believed that ideas play a pivotal role in ensuring that a change to culture would occur and not merely economic forces.
How does Gramsci see the rc maintaining power over society’s?
1.Coercion: the armed forces, police force and courts are used to force the other classes to accept its rule
2. Consent (hegemony): ideas & values are used to persuade the subordinate classes that it’s rule is legitimate
-Agrees w/ marx that the rc maintain dominance as they control institutions within society
Why does Gramsci believe hegemony of the rc is never complete?
1.The rc are a minority
2. The P have a dual consciousness
-Therefore a revolution will only be possible if the P create a counter hegemony (offer moral & ideological leadership)
Advantages of Gramsci
-Other marxists have adopted a similar approach to G. Eg Willis: describes the we lads he studies as partially penetrating bourgeois ideology. They see through the mc ideology & recognise the myth of meritocracy
-These writers often draw on perspectives such as Interactionism that emphasise the role of ideas & meanings as the basis for action
Disadvantages of Gramsci
-Accused of over-emphasising the role of ideas and under emphasising the role of both state coercion and economic factors.
Who was Althusser?opinion on marx?
-Criticised Marxs base-superstructure model (rejecting economic determinism) and favoured a more complex one called Structural Determism.
What are the 3 levels in this model of capitalist society?
- The economic level: all activities that involve producing something (to satisfy need)
- The political level: all forms of organisation
3.The ideological level: ways people see themselves and the world.
-With the base-superstructure model there is one-way causality, the economic level determines everything else. But Althusser is two-way (political & ideological levels have relative autonomy-partial independence from economic level). They can also affect the economic level.
Althusser divided the states performances into two apparatus…
-He said the state does political & ideological functions to ensure the reproduction of capitalism
1. The Repressive State Apparatus:Armed bodies of men- the army, police, prison. They coerce the wc into complying
2. The Ideological State Apparatus: Media, education, family, political parties, trade unions. They ideologically manipulate the wc into accepting capitalism as legitimate.
Why does Althusser disagree with Humanist marxists?
-Eg Gramsci, Althusser argues that we aren’t free agent who possess free will but products of social structures that determine everything about us. -Therefore, socialism will not come about due to a change in our consciousness, but rather because of the whole system collapsing.
Advantages of Althusser work
-His work provided a huge leap in neo-marxist thinking, as it moved from a naive marxism which simply stated that everything that existed did so to perform a task for capitalism.
-Instead he recognised this but also highlighted the contradiction & differences between various institutions of society
Disadvantages of Althusser work
-However, Althusser takes little account of human agency-the ability to make decisions and make differences to what happens in social worlds.
Overall evaluation of Neo-Marxism
-Neo-Marxists have answered some of the criticism of traditional M, they introduce a looser relationship between economics & society
-However, M theory has become more complex and less powerful as an explanation
-Marxist theories continue to be influential in a world where inequalities on a global scale are still evident.
