A national-popular elite can catalyze historical change by skipping developmental stages
Evidence
An elite consisting of some of the most active, energetic, enterprising and disciplined members of the society emigrates abroad and assimilates the culture and historical experiences of the most advanced countries of the West, without however losing the most essential characteristics of its own nationality, that is to say without breaking its sentimental and historical links with its own people. Having thus performed its intellectual apprenticeship it returns to its own country and compels the people to an enforced awakening, skipping historical stages in the process. The difference between this elite and that imported from Germany (by Peter the Great, for example) lies in its essentially national-popular character. It could not be assimilated by the inert passivity of the Russian people, because it was itself an energetic reaction of Russia to her own historical inertia. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 310
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Introduces the concept of a ‘national-popular’ intellectual elite distinguished by retaining sentimental and historical links to its people — a key analytical category for later applicability.
- XREF: This ‘spontaneous awakening vs imported enlightenment’ distinction connects to the broader Gramscian question of organic vs traditional intellectuals, and to how colonial elites later navigate borrowed modernity.