Union-party coordination operates through freely chosen leadership, not formal subordination

Evidence

Must the unions therefore be subordinated to the party? This is not the right way to pose the question. The problem must be posed in the following terms: every member of the party, whatever his position or his responsibilities, is still a member of the party and subordinate to its leadership. There cannot be subordination between union and party: if the union has spontaneously chosen as its leader a member of the party, that means that the union freely accepts the directives of the party, hence freely accepts (indeed desires) control by the party over its officials. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 870

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s reframing dissolves the crude union-vs-party hierarchy question into the organic relation of freely accepted party leadership.
• XREF: connects to: A freely chosen contract can still create relations of domination between parties — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 745; Political leadership can be exercised by a replaceable inner group, not one person — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 942; Labor contracts shift subordination toward relative coordination between parties — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6631 (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: A freely chosen contract can still create relations of domination between parties — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 745; Political leadership can be exercised by a replaceable inner group, not one person — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 942; Labor contracts shift subordination toward relative coordination between parties — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6631 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• A freely chosen contract can still create relations of domination between parties #complicates (0.85) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 745
• Factional allegiance to the Comintern line determined Italian party leadership calculations #complicates (0.72)