Transformism absorbed opposition elites into the ruling bloc

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Absorbing rival elites into the ruling bloc decapitates and neutralizes opposition; Transformism organically absorbed revolutionary personnel into the Italian ruling class; Modern states replace the mechanical bloc with active hegemony by dominant groups — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1867 (+4 more)

Related

• States rule subject groups by allying with their internal elites (similarity 0.88)
• Defeated populism is absorbed hierarchically into the ruling order (similarity 0.86)
• Ruling classes absorb and neutralize subversive movements through transformism (similarity 0.84)
• Modern states replace the mechanical bloc with active hegemony by dominant groups (similarity 0.84)
• A newly hegemonic subaltern group must build a new intellectual and moral order (similarity 0.83)
• A small Italian ruling group absorbed all political personnel from subversive mass movements (similarity 0.83)
• Transformism organically absorbed revolutionary personnel into the Italian ruling class (similarity 0.82)
• Democracy exists where led groups can pass into the leading group (similarity 0.82)
• Pre-modern states worked as mechanical blocs of semi-autonomous social groups with dual power (similarity 0.79)
• All state powers are organs of hegemony in varying degrees (similarity 0.78)
• Social transformation meets resistance from both subaltern and allied dominant sectors (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Transformism organically absorbed revolutionary personnel into the Italian ruling class #corroborates (0.95)
• Modern states replace the mechanical bloc with active hegemony by dominant groups #expands (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1867
• Hegemonic democracy depends on upward mobility of the led groups #expands (0.72)
• States rule subject groups by allying with their internal elites #expands (0.70)