Legislative capacity requires both coercive instruments and spontaneous mass consent

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: Parliamentary rule institutionalized permanent voluntary consent from the urban class; Corruption substitutes for hegemony when force and consent both fail; Formal democratic liberties rest on an unseen foundation of physical coercion — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 346 (+7 more)

Related

• Parliamentary rule institutionalized permanent voluntary consent from the urban class (similarity 0.92)
• Normal parliamentary hegemony pairs force with consent so force appears majority-backed (similarity 0.90)
• Under hegemony, organized consent displaces direct coercion as the main instrument (similarity 0.84)
• Hegemony works by winning consent backed by coercion, not by force alone. (similarity 0.84)
• Hegemony runs on consent backed by a standby coercive apparatus (similarity 0.84)
• Effective revolutionary parties unite force with consent dialectically (similarity 0.83)
• Hegemony combines coercion with actively won consent, with consent in the lead (similarity 0.82)
• Hegemony is rule achieved through consent rather than coercion (similarity 0.82)
• Domination relies on coercion while leadership wins consent and subordinate interests. (similarity 0.81)
• Hegemony is coercion combined with consent, won and perpetually reconstructed through class struggle. (similarity 0.80)
• Domination operates through consent won by leadership, not force alone (similarity 0.79)
• Normal hegemony balances force and consent so that force appears based on majority consent (similarity 0.79)
• Hegemony requires economic leadership, not just compromise concessions (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Normal parliamentary hegemony pairs force with consent so force appears majority-backed #expands (0.95)
• Hegemony is rule achieved through consent rather than coercion #expands (0.90) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 626
• Coercive government power depends on voluntary cooperation from many #corroborates (0.90)
• Formal democratic liberties rest on an unseen foundation of physical coercion #complicates (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 346
• Coerced confession coexisted with formal requirements that it appear spontaneous #exemplifies (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 89
• Parliamentary rule institutionalized permanent voluntary consent from the urban class #exemplifies (0.82)
• Corruption substitutes for hegemony when force and consent both fail #complicates (0.80)
• Voluntary agreement is impossible between parties of unequal power #complicates (0.80)
• Coercive State power can progressively wither into regulated civil society #complicates (0.80)