A party without a governing program functions as the servant of its opponent

Evidence

But the Action Party lacked even a concrete programme of government. In essence it was always, more than anything else, an agitational and propagandist body in the service of the Moderates. The disagreements and internal conflicts of the Action Party, and the tremendous hatred which Mazzini aroused among the more valiant men of action (Garibaldi, Felice Orsini, 53 etc.) against himself personally and against his activities, were caused by the lack of any firm political leadership. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 438

Categorization

• XREF: Fits the toolkit’s theme of how nominal opposition is absorbed — pure ‘agitational’ politics without structural program reproduces the dominant order, echoing later readings of superficial anti-racism.
• DEEPTHINKING: Dense distinction between agitation-as-primary-activity and an organic programme of government; the former is shown to be a structural position within the opponent’s hegemony, not outside it.