Write approximately 150 words on "Linkage between Power and Hegemony (10m)". (UPSC CSE Mains 2024- Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- Power, a central concept in political science, was defined by Max Weber as a coercive relationship involving the ability of an individual or group to enforce their will despite opposition. But, Gramsci’s use of hegemony is related to his understanding of power, which is broader and richer than realists: a mixture of coercion and consent.
- In understanding how the prevailing order was maintained, Marxists concentrated almost exclusively on the coercive practices and capabilities of the state. State was seen as a means of opressing one class by another. Based on this understanding, it was coercion that prevented the exploited society from rising up and changing the system that makes them suffer.
- Gramsci recognized that while this was true in less developed countries like Russia, it was not the case in the Western Europe. Here the system was maintained not merely by coercion, but also through consent. Consent is created and recreated by the hegemony of the ruling elite in society. It is hegemony that makes the political, cultural, and moral values of the dominant group to become widely dispersed throughout society and to be accepted by subordinate groups and classes as their own. For Gramsci, dominant ideologies are institutionalized in society as they become the “common sense”.
- Hegemony is thus defined as cultural and ideological power through which the ruling class “manufactures consent” for its rule. It is difficult to perceive as the societal norms and values align with the interests of the ruling class, making their dominance and rule appear legitimate and natural. Thus, hegemony is the ability to shape worldviews. In international relations, it has been termed as “soft power” by Joesph Nye.
- Gramsci concludes that it is due to the hegemony of the ruling class and their ideas that the socialist revolution failed to occur, as predicted by Marx. Therefore, he advocated war of position by creating counter-hegemony and propagated by organic intellectuals to challenge the cultural and ideological dominance of the ruling class. This would be followed by the war of manoeuvre as a direct, confrontational struggle for power, often associated with revolutions or military actions.
- The hegemons like the United Kingdom and the United States used the hegemonic idea of free trade. Their claim that this system benefits everyone has been so widely accepted that it has attained “common sense” status. However, free trade benefits the hegemonic power as it is the most efficient producer in the global economy, and it can produce goods which are competitive in all markets. The peripheral countries do not benefit from freee trade as much as the hegemon does. As Marxists argue free trade prevents the development of the periphery. The power of the United States is based on the hegemony of the neo-liberalism.
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