Chapter 9: Ideology and Hegemony

Different theories of ideology

• Marx: ideology defined as false consciousness → problematic bc it assumes you can step out of ideology and shed the false consciousness imposed by the dominant classes

  • False conscious includes the assumption that there is a right conscious, which there is not

• This is impossible, you can only step from one ideology into another

• Marx: representation as part of the cultural superstructure and thus merely reflecting the economic base

• Hegemony as a way of updating Marx idea of ideology

Stepping out of ideology

• Example of movie “They live”

• Promises of consumer goods, exotic places, and sexual gratification are really about: ideological tools to pacify the masses and make them complicit in their own exploitation

• Secret alien take-over to metaphorically represent class conflict

Ideology as a systematic body of ideas

• It is impossible to step out of ideology

• Think of ideology as “a systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of people”

• Advantage: not exclusive focus on class conflict, instead included: gender, sexuality, race, and a million other things as well

• Theory of ideology also considers representations of all kinds as important factors in spreading ideology because such “ideological forms always present a particular image of the world”

• Representations matter: they shape our understanding of the world because there is no meaning without representation

Ideology as material practice

• Ideology is not only expressed in texts, adds a dimension “material practice”

• Means: enacted in “certain rituals and customs [that] have the effect of bindung us to the social order”

• Mini shopping carts for kids: ideology that shopping is fun, a game, should not be left to adults → bound to the social order of contemporary capitalism / being turned into consumers

A new definition of ideology

• Concept of ideology as practice

• Theorized by Louis Althusser, French philosopher, concerned with updating classical Marxist ideas

• Definition of ideology: “ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence”

• 2 implications

  • Ideology always entails a mis-conception or distortion of reality; world is always imaginary

  • We can only ever step from one ideology into another one, from one misconception into the next one, but never out of ideology 

  • → our relationship to the world will always be imaginary

Well suited for Cultural Studies

• Althusser’s definition echoes Cultural Studies perspectives on representation and discourse

  • No meaning  outside of representation; no truth outside of discourse

  • Representations link us to the world, enabling us to make sense of it and communicate about it, but at the same time separate us from the world, because we never see the world for what it is (constructionist approach)

• Difference

  • Representation is very general

  • Althusser is concerned far mire concretely with the effect ideology has on maintaining class hierarchies and the status quo

Interpellation

• Concept how dominant classes use ideology to maintain their control over oppressed classes

• Althusser “all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individually as concrete subjects”

• There are moments at which individuals come under the influence of ideology

• Individuals are not only exposed to ideology, but also accept and internalize the ideas that make to a specific ideology; 

• → transforms individuals into subjects/ beings that submit to an ideology and thus to the people / institution that puts it out there

Constant re-interpretation

• Example of policeman calling out to passerby in the street; acknowledging the authority of policeman (a representative of state); also accepting the own subordinate position

• Turned from individual to subject

• More theoretical idea

• Understand interpellation as a constant re-interprellation, a continuously repeated process that binds us to the social order and again and again reconfirms our status as subjects

  • Expl. every time one takes a children trolly in supermarket, one is re-interpellated as future consumers and subjects to the logic of capitalism

U.S. Army recruiting poster

• A specific moment when interpellation reaches new level or takes a new turn

• U.S. Army recruiting posters used in WW1 and WW2

• Uncle Sam, allegorical representation of the US, pointing finger

• “I want you for U.S. Army”

• Goal: enlisting in army, targets people who consider themselves patriotic Americans already, suggesting a new time for a special commitment has come

• → interpellated as potential recruits

The reaping scene in the Hunger Games

• Concept of interpellation in reaping scene 

• Katniss as subject of the Capitol when she participates in the reaping

• Has not internalized the ideology of Capitol, since she participates more passively (physically present, not emotionally committed)

• Change when she volunteers to take place of sister; she fully accepts the authority of the Capitol and the logic of the reaping

• → becomes an active participant who plays the Capitol’s game

The repressive stat apparatus and the ideological state apparatuses

• Repressive state apparatus (RSA)

  • Compromises police, the army, but also the prison system

  • “Functions by violence”

  • In the singular because its parts all function similarly: the dominant class uses force to impose its will

  • Functions predominantly by repression (including physical repression), functions secondary by ideology

• Ideological state apparatuses (ISA)

  • The school, church, the family, or the media

  • “Functions by ideology”

  • In the plural because the parts function differently in spreading the ideology of the dominant class

  • Functions predominantly by ideology, functions secondary by repression

• → both cases: a combination of ideology and repression is at work

The institution of the hunger games

• Hunger Games both part of repressive state apparatus and the ideological state apparatus

• To inhabitants of districts: (RSA) oppression, reminder of absolute power of Capitol

• By interpellation the capitol also uses the games to spread ideology in the districts, but only as its secondary goal

• Contrast: inhabitants of capitol: (ISA) propaganda of ideology, keeping memory of rebellion of district alive, suggest capitols dominance over districts as necessary to keep peace (and thus beneficial to all); but also entertainment, suggesting to leave politics to leaders

Althusser’s traditional Marxism

• Entails an understanding of ideology, that is better suited for Cultural Studies than the classic Marxist one

• It compromises a number or related concepts that allow a nuanced understanding of how the dominant class maintains its superiority

• These concepts can be productively applied to phenomena, practices, and representations (everything that Cultural Studies is interested in)

• Traditional Marxist one sees social conflict exclusively as class conflict

• BUT:

  • Understanding of oppression is still one-sided

  • Does not consider the reaction of dominant classes to oppressed classes, which appear to be very passive

  • While nobody is entirely without power (Foucault)

  • → theory of hegemony

The combination of force and ideology

• Developed by italian marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci

• Interested in question: why socialist revolutions that marx had predicted did not happen yet in most countries by 1920s

• Developed theory in short writing while imprisoned by Mussolini

• Althusser: conceptually separates force and ideology / Gramsci’s concept of hegemony: compromises both dimensions 

• “The supremacy of a social group manifests itself in two ways, as ‘dominant’ and as ‘intellectual and moral leadership’”

Common sense

• Gramsci puts more emphasis on ideological leadership than the use of force

• Answer to his question: the ability of the dominant class to present its position as common sense and favorable to all

• The effect of ideology is not so much that is keeps the oppressed masses passive and pacified . Rather, it turns them into active supporters of measures and policies that run against their own interests

• Key insight: can be applied not only to societies fo the 19th century, but also to contemporary democratic political systems

• Explains the puzzling mass appeal of parties whose agenda is harmful to working-class voters

Trickle-down economics

• Example from US and UK by growing inequality

• Neoliberal governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher cut back on social welfare and taxes for the rich

• This unjust distribution of burdens enjoyed considerable support from people who were worse off because of it

• Support won through the idea of trickle-down economics

  • Controversial theory and has been completely dismissed since

  • Benefits given to the rich would eventually benefit everybody

  • Effects would “trickle down” the social ladder

Compromise

• Gramsci also dresses that those in power occasionally need to compromise in order to maintain their superiority

• This anticipates to some degree Foucault’s claim that nobody is entirely without power

• Supremacy of dominant class is not fixed and secure at all times, but often very fragile

• Strategy to stay in power is needed (they give in on pressing issues to prevent general uprising and complete loss of power)

• Example: Katniss and Peeta winning both, instead of killing themselves

  • Because the suicide would have negative impact on the ideological message to the people in the Capitol and might even spark an uprising in the districts

The Chinese Covid Strategy

• China had one of the strictest covid regimes in the world

• Changed December 2022, still on lockdown even though availability of vaccines

• Authoritarian regime could impose such strict rules, because it wasn’t a democratic country

• But November 2022 after restrictions again people began protest

• When it was clear that force would not help, the government compromised; within a few weeks all restrictions were lifted → begin of disseminating the narrative that the pandemic was over

• John Storey: Hegemony is “never simply power imposed from above: it is always the result of ‘negotiations’ between dominant and subordinate groups”

Coercion

• If this shift in policy (in China) had not come to contain the protest, the protestors would have challenged the general distribution of power in China and the regime would have needed to use force

• Dominant group also uses coercion, that is, violence, to defend its supremacy

• Its the last resort of the dominant class, according to Gramsci

• This can explain the excessive use of force against Occupy Wall Street protest movement during the great recession 2008-09

  • This movement had a clear ideology of its own that was irreconcilable with the dominant ideology

  • Therefore it was impossible to sell its members exploitation and discrimination as common sense; protestors were not inclined to accept compromises of any sort

  • Constituted a threat to the dominant capitalist order, even in a democratic state like the US (back then), authorities quickly resorted to the use of force and broke up the protests

Incorporation

• Potential conflicts can be contained by the incorporation of subversive and resistant movements and cultural forms into the dominant order

• John Storey applying Gramsci’s theory to West Coast rock music

  • This music developed in 60s in opposition to the war against Vietnam

  • Highly critical of government and capitalism

  • When music become more popular, artists could not escape capitalism

  • Music with anti-capitalist politics increased the profits of capitalist record companies

The Hunger Games

• Films and novels highly critical of economic inequality and the capitalist system that produces it

• Conflict between the Capitol and the districts can be read as symbolically representing the conflict between different classes in the US or between the rich Global North and the poor Global South (exploited by the former)

• But at the same time the novels and films are totally incorporated into the capitalist system

• → Inextricably entangled in the phenomenon that it condemns

The place of Marxist theories

• Gramsci’s theory helps to better understand the place of Marxist theories in general and thus also the theory of hegemony in contemporary capitalist society

• Their place in the educational system is restricted to the humanities and part of the social sciences

• Not taught in economic departments

• These theories can be used to voice criticism of capitalism, but only in departments that don’t really matter for the economic order

Hegemony beyond Marxism

• One strength of hegemony is also its weakness

• It can be productively used to talk about other concepts (see hegemonic femininity / masculinity)

• Foucault’s criticism of classical Marxism was that is reduced all conflict to a matter of class and disregarded all other factors → reductionist picture of the world

• Gramsci’s theory escaped this one-sidedness

• Its more dynamic, and its focus on compromise and incorporation makes it more compatible with Foucault’s theories of discourse and power than Althusser’s theory on ISA and RSA

• Flipside: this idea has been severed from its Marxist roots → telling with regard to the cultural status of Marxist theories