Gramsci’s hegemony concept treats power as non-coercive and culture-based, not class-direct

Evidence

The immense theoretical revolution which Gramsci’s concept of “hegemony” represents (over, for example, the much simpler and more mechanical formulations of many parts of The German Ideology ) cannot be overstressed. Through this concept, Gramsci considerably enlarges the whole notion of domination. He places it fundamentally in “the relations between structure and superstructure which must be accurately posed and resolved if the forces which are active in a particular period are to be correctly analysed.” In doing so, he sets the concept at a critical distance from all types of economic or mechanical reductionism, from both “economism” and conspiracy theory. He redefines the whole notion of power so as to give full weight to its non-coercive aspects. He also sets the notion of domination at a distance from the direct expression of narrow class interests. He understands that ideology is not “psychological or moralistic but structural and epistemological.” Above all he allows us to begin to grasp the central role which the superstructures, the state and civil associations, politics and ideology, play in securing and cementing societies “structured in dominance,” and in actively conforming the whole of social, ethical, mental, and moral life in their overall tendencies to the requirements of the productive system. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 906

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what hegemony adds beyond economism and mechanical Marxism: a structural-ideological account of domination through consent, not force.
• XREF: Connects to Frankfurt School debates over base-superstructure and culture industry as cementing capitalist society.