Premature economism reduces politics to accusations of bad faith and duplicity

Evidence

Not only the popularisations but Mazzini’s original doctrines themselves were in point of fact extremely vague and devoid of content. Despite his active participation in the Roman Republic of 1849, Mazzini never succeeded, particularly in the crucial years 1860 70, in formulating a clear policy towards the position of the Church and the Papacy, and his slogan “Dio e popolo ” (God and People) provided a political and ideological cover for all sorts of liberal and neo-Catholic sentimentalisms. On an ideological level (and Mazzini’s influence after 1850 was mainly ideological rather than directly political) Mazzinianism represented the degeneration of the romantic patriotic impulse of the Risorgimento, co-incidental with the rise of “materialistic” positivism. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2766 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Economic reductionism yields cheap certitude but no political efficacy; Economism reduces history to individual self-interest, technical change, or single factors of production; Vague ideological slogans can mask rather than resolve real political contradictions — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2766 (+2 more)

Related

• Vague ideological slogans can mask rather than resolve real political contradictions (similarity 0.82)
• Successful insurrection requires lengthy ideological preparation beforehand (similarity 0.80)
• Economic reductionism yields easy certainty but no practical political efficacy. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Economism reduces social formations to a single line of economic determination #expands (0.85)
• Economic structures are necessary but not sufficient to explain political and ideological features #expands (0.78)
• Vague ideological slogans can mask rather than resolve real political contradictions #expands (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2766