Historical outcomes require analyzing auxiliary groups, not just fundamental class forces

Evidence

It would be an error of method (an aspect of sociological mechanicism) to believe that in Caesarism—whether progressive, reactionary, or of an intermediate and episodic character—the entire new historical phenomenon is due to the equilibrium of the “fundamental” forces. It is also necessary to see the interplay of relations between the principal groups (of various kinds, socio-economic and technical-economic) of the fundamental classes and the auxiliary forces directed by, or subjected to, their hegemonic influence. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 860

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s methodological warning: social analysis must attend to intermediate and auxiliary groups shaped by hegemony, not just the two fundamental classes — essential concept for reading how power operates through gradations.