Hegemony via consent, not domination, gives Orientalism its durability and strength

Evidence

Hegemony is that state of “total social au thority” which, at certain specific conjunctures, a specific class alliance wins, by a combination of “coercion” and “consent,” over the whole social formation, and its dominated classes: not only at the economic level, but also at the level of political and ideological leadership, in civil, intellectual, and moral life as well as at the material level: and over the terrain of civil society as well as in and through the condensed relations of the state. This “authority and leadership” is, for Gramsci, not a given a priori but a specific historical “moment”—one of unusual social authority. It represents the product of a certain mastery of the class struggle, certainly, but it is still subject to the class struggle and the “relations of social forces” in society, of which its “unstable equilibrium” is only one, provisional, outcome or result. Hegemony is a state of play in the class struggle which has, therefore, to be continually worked on and reconstructed in order to be maintained, and which remains a contradictory conjuncture. The important point, for Gramsci, is that, under hegemonic conditions, the organization of consent (by the dominated classes to the “leadership” of the dominant class alliance) takes precedence (though it does not obliterate) the exercise of domination through coercion. In such conditions, the class struggle tends to assume the form, not of a “frontal assault” on the bastions of the state (“war of maneuver”) but of a more protracted, strategic, and tactical struggle, exploiting and working on a number of different contradictions (Gramsci’s “war of position”). — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 626 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Orientalism’s authority over its subject derives from power, not disinterested objectivity.; Orientalism’s paradigms confirm rather than contest imperial domination; Orientalism becomes national authority when backed by state institutions (+4 more)

Related

• Hegemony requires economic leadership, not just compromise concessions (similarity 0.88)
• Hegemony is a precarious, ever-rebuilt dominance won mainly through consent plus coercion. (similarity 0.88)
• Hegemony is rule achieved through consent rather than coercion (similarity 0.88)
• Hegemony runs on consent backed by a standby coercive apparatus (similarity 0.88)
• Domination relies on coercion while leadership wins consent and subordinate interests. (similarity 0.86)
• Hegemony is coercion combined with consent, won and perpetually reconstructed through class struggle. (similarity 0.85)
• Under hegemony, organized consent displaces direct coercion as the main instrument (similarity 0.85)
• Hegemony works by winning consent backed by coercion, not by force alone. (similarity 0.85)
• Hegemony combines coercion with actively won consent, with consent in the lead (similarity 0.84)
• Domination without leadership constitutes dictatorship without hegemony (similarity 0.84)
• Hegemony is a fragile, multi-front achievement won through consent, not domination (similarity 0.84)
• Domination operates through consent won by leadership, not force alone (similarity 0.83)
• Hegemony is not equivalent to ideological domination. (similarity 0.82)
• Hegemony must be perpetually won and can be lost. (similarity 0.82)
• All state powers are organs of hegemony in varying degrees (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Hegemony is rule achieved through consent rather than coercion #expands (0.95) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 626
• Hegemony runs on consent backed by a standby coercive apparatus #expands (0.78)