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đŸȘ” The Threshold

Modern states replace the mechanical bloc with active hegemony by dominant groups

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tagsja-picks, define, xref, deepthinking, definitional_content, trade, corroborated, category/definitional-content
aliases@gramsci_selections_1971, loc. 1867

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Modern states replace the mechanical bloc with active hegemony by dominant groups

Evidence

A further criterion of research must be borne in mind, in order to emphasise the dangers inherent in the method of historical analogy as an interpretative criterion. In the ancient and mediaeval State alike, centralisation, whether political-territorial or social (and the one is merely a function of the other), was minimal. The State was, in a certain sense, a mechanical bloc of social groups, often of different race: within the circle of political-military compression, which was only exercised harshly at certain moments, the subaltern groups had a life of their own, institutions of their own, etc., and sometimes these institutions had State functions which made of the State a federation of social groups with disparate functions not subordinated in any way a situation which in periods of crisis highlighted with extreme clarity the phenomenon of ‘dual power’. 
 The modern State substitutes for the mechanical bloc of social groups their subordination to the active hegemony of the directive and dominant group, hence abolishes certain autonomies, which nevertheless are reborn in other forms, as parties, trade unions, cultural associations. The contemporary dictatorships legally abolish these new forms of autonomy as well, and strive to incorporate them within State activity: the legal centralisation of the entire national life in the hands of the dominant group becomes ‘totalitarian’. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1867

In the ancient and mediaeval State alike, centralisation, whether political-territorial or social (and the one is merely a function of the other), was minimal. The State was, in a certain sense, a mechanical bloc of social groups, often of different race: within the circle of political-military compression, which was only exercised harshly at certain moments, the subaltern groups had a life of their own, institutions of their own, etc., and sometimes these institutions had State functions which made of the State a federation of social groups with disparate functions not subordinated in any way a situation which in periods of crisis highlighted with extreme clarity the phenomenon of ‘dual power’. 
 The modern State substitutes for the mechanical bloc of social groups their subordination to the active hegemony of the directive and dominant group, hence abolishes certain autonomies, which nevertheless are reborn in other forms, as parties, trade unions, cultural associations. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1867

Categorization

  • DEFINE: Defines the historical shift from the ‘mechanical bloc’ of the pre-modern state to the ‘active hegemony’ of the modern state — a core scaffolding concept.
  • XREF: Foreshadows how ‘active hegemony’ becomes the analytic engine for the Islamophobia field’s account of how dominant-group norms are universalized over Muslim communities. — connects to: States rule subject groups by allying with their internal elites; A newly hegemonic subaltern group must build a new intellectual and moral order; Pre-modern states worked as mechanical blocs of semi-autonomous social groups with dual power (+11 more)
  • DEEPTHINKING: The distinction between mechanical bloc (pre-modern, coercive, federated) and active hegemony (modern, consensual-fused) is a paradigm-level framing that structures their entire theory of the state and its dialectic with ‘dual power’.
  • corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1867

Broader Connections

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