Decisive political forces in organic crises have complex, alliance-based social composition.
Evidence
In fact, this is already a theoretically complex and rich formulation. It implies that the actual social or political force which becomes decisive in a moment of organic crisis will not be composed of a single homogeneous class but will have a complex social composition. Second, it is implicit that its basis of unity will have to be, not an automatic one, given by its position in the mode of economic production, but, rather, a “system of alliances.” Third, though such a political and social force has its roots in the fundamental class division of society, the actual forms of the political struggle will have a wider social character—dividing society not simply along “class versus class” lines but, rather, polarizing it along the broadest front of antagonism (“the majority of the working population”): for example, between all the popular classes, on the one side, and those representing the interests of capital and the power bloc grouped around the state, on the other. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 108
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Specifies what hegemony-as-class-alliance implies: a complex social composition, unity by alliance not economics, and polarization along broad social fronts rather than simple class lines.