Misunderstanding the state’s dual nature causes strategic errors in politics

Evidence

Tactic of great masses, and immediate tactic of small groups. Belongs to the discussion about war of position and war of movement, in so far as this is reflected in the psychology both of great leaders (strategists) and of their subordinates. It is also (if one can put it like that) the point of connection between strategy and tactics, both in politics and in military science. Individuals (even as components of vast masses) tend to conceive war instinctively as “partisan warfare” or “Garibaldine warfare” (which is a higher form of “partisan warfare”). In politics the error occurs as a result of an inaccurate understanding of what the State (in its integral meaning: dictatorship + hegemony) really is. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 906

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the state as dictatorship + hegemony — a compact, portable formula for the toolkit.
• XREF: The ‘dictatorship + hegemony’ formula directly feeds the Islamophobia readings’ model of state power as combining coercion with cultural common sense.