PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Marx, Gramsci & Arendt
Gramscis concept of Hegemony.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
r' hegemony = Gramsci’s answer to “why no proletarian revolution” + bourgeois power exceeds the economic base R2 rule rests on ideas + culture ~ ruling worldview made “common sense” ~ consent, not force alone
Body flow
hegemony = predominance of one class ~ coercion + consent ~ Roger Simon: coercive power + persuasive influence ~ site = civil society (schools, churches, media) ~ civil society a real seat of power, beyond the state (vs orthodox Marxism) ~ Bobbio: theoretician of superstructure
Counter-view
hegemony neither total nor permanent ~ counter-hegemony built through “war of position” in civil society ~ consent can be contested before power is seized
Conclusion routes
Conclusion R1 hegemony frees Marxism from economic determinism ~ power located in culture, routes not the economy alone r2 | while hegemony holds, revolution is impossible ~ ideological ground must be won first
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
