Passive revolution denotes either revolution without masses or molecular hidden change
Evidence
Gramsci also uses the expression in two distinct ways: firstly, in something close to Cuoco’s original sense, as a revolution without mass participation (and due in large part to outside forces)—e.g. the Risorgimento; secondly, as a “molecular” social transformation which takes place as it were beneath the surface of society, in situations where the progressive class cannot advance openly—e.g. the progress of the bourgeoisie in Restoration France after 1815 (“revolution/restoration”: see p. 119), or the development of Christianity within the Roman Empire. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 379
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Distinguishes Gramsci’s two senses of passive revolution—a distinction often lost in secondary literature.
- XREF: The ‘molecular’ beneath-the-surface transformation links to later analyses of how policies transform social relations gradually, relevant to Islamophobia critique of slow bureaucratic normalization.
Related
- Passive revolutions can unfold molecularly beneath society’s surface (similarity 0.97)
- Passive revolutions suppress some contradictions only to spawn new ones (similarity 0.80)
- Gramsci’s ‘passive revolution’ concept remained internally ambiguous and unstable (similarity 0.80)
- Gramsci applies passive revolution to the fascist regime itself (similarity 0.78)