A ruling class lacking organic intellectuals cannot sustain hegemony

Evidence

This conception of the function of intellectuals, I believe, throws light on the reason, or one of the reasons, for the fall of the mediaeval communes, i.e. of the rule of an economic class which did not prove able to create its own category of intellectuals and thus exercise a hegemony as well as a dictatorship. The Italian intellectuals did not have a national-popular character, but one that was cosmopolitan on the model of the Church; it was a matter of indifference to Leonardo whether he sold the designs for the fortifications of Florence to Duke Valentino. The Communes were thus a syndicalist state, which did not succeed in transcending this phase and becoming an integral State as Machiavelli vainly urged; the latter attempted, by reorganising the army, to organise the hegemony of the city over the countryside, and he can therefore be called the first Italian Jacobin (the second was Carlo Cattaneo, but he had too many strange fancies in his head). — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1869

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows why hegemony needs a class’s own intellectual cadre — worldviews produced elsewhere leave a class unable to lead.
• XREF: Relates to the idea that social groups hire intellectuals (‘organic’ vs ‘traditional’) later used to analyze how elites secure complicity rather than only coercion. — connects to: A ruling class needs its own intellectuals to exercise hegemony alongside coercion — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1869; Intellectuals are class-bound, not an autonomous social category — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 433; Intellectuals are never class-neutral but split into traditional and organic types (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• A ruling class needs its own intellectuals to exercise hegemony alongside coercion #corroborates (0.95) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1869
• Intellectuals divide into traditional and organic groups tied to class formations #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 245
• Intellectuals are never class-neutral but split into traditional and organic types #corroborates (0.82)
• Intellectuals are class-bound, not an autonomous social category #corroborates (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 433
• Schooling matters for hegemony because intellectuals depend on it economically #expands (0.75)
• Dominant cultural paradigms need not come from a society’s ruling agents #contradicts (0.70) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 870