A leading party can force a class beyond its own preferred position

Evidence

On the subject of Jacobinism and the Action Party, an element to be highlighted is the following: that the Jacobins won their function of “leading” [dirigente ] party by a struggle to the death; they literally “imposed” themselves on the French bourgeoisie, leading it into a far more advanced position than the originally strongest bourgeois nuclei would have spontaneously wished to take up, and even far more advanced than that which the historical premisses should have permitted—hence the various forms of backlash and the function of Napoleon I. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 473

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Jacobin ‘leading party’ — a political group that imposes advancement on a class through struggle, not merely representing its spontaneous will.