Ruling blocs present their particular interests as universal ones to secure legitimacy.

Evidence

This complementarity—Gramsci calls it an unstable equilibrium—is the one moment of the class struggle which never disappears; but it can be more or less open, more or less contained, more or less oppositional. In general, then, “hegemony” achieves the establishment of a certain equilibrium in the class struggle so that, whatever are the concessions the ruling “bloc” is required to make to win consent and legitimacy, its fundamental basis will not be overturned. … For Gramsci, this often has a great deal to do with the manner in which, at the level of the superstructures and the state, particular interests can be represented as “general interests” in which all classes have an equal stake. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 905

Categorization

• XREF: Universalization of particular interests echoes Marx on ideology and connects to the reader’s interest in how economic power becomes political legitimacy. — connects to: Rationalist-universalists hold political theory can establish one universally valid good regime — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 289