Notes on Hegemony and Consent: Gramsci
Passive Revolution and the Politics of Reform
Core idea: passive revolution (also called revolution-restoration) is a bourgeois strategy to reorganize state power and civil society so that capitalism survives crises without mass revolutionary overturn. It allows reforms but preserves the dominance of the ruling class and prevents a genuine expansion of popular political control.
Context: arises in the crisis of capitalist society, particularly in the 1929–30 period and during the broader crisis of bourgeois hegemony. It is linked to the extended state and to the long-term restructuring of capitalism (New Deal, fascism) that increases state intervention in economy and civil society.
Consequences: expansion of the state into civil society, institutional innovations, and new forms of domination that still stop short of expansive democratic transformation.
Gramsci’s key contribution: shows how consent can be manufactured through both state power and civil society, and how reforms can be used to stabilize the system rather than to advance a socialist transformation. He emphasizes the need to distinguish forms of consent and the historical context in which they arise.
Famous contrast: passive revolution vs active/anti-passive revolution. Passive revolution stabilizes by reforming the base without expanding democratic control; anti-passive revolution aims to expand active consent and democratic self-management.
Related concepts: war of position (long-term strategy in civil society) vs war of manoeuvre (direct seizure of power in a quick, frontal assault).
Gramsci’s aim: to outline a democratic road to socialism distinct from social democracy and Stalinism, rooted in a new form of consent anchored in the productive process and civil society.
Key quotes and references:
“The dictatorship of the proletariat is expansive, not repressive. A continuous movement takes place from the base upwards, a continuous replacement through all the capillaries of society, a continuous circulation of men.” (PWII 212)
“Hegemony is not force, and the more the element of force dominates, the less hegemony there will be.” (SPN 121)
Gramsci on the state as an integral, extended form combining coercion and consent: an “integral state” that comprises both civil and political society.
The Risorgimento as passive revolution: the old feudal classes survive as a ‘caste’ and are transformed, not eliminated (SPN 115; Q 961).
Fascism as a form of passive revolution: expansion of production through state intervention and corporative organization while preserving profit appropriation (SPN 119–120).
“There are never restorations in toto” (Caesarism and fascism) – the passive revolution concept resists simple one-to-one categorizations (SNP 219–220).
Practical implications: a socialist transition in advanced capitalism requires an anti-passive revolution—expanded active consent and mass self-organization through civil society and direct democracy.
The Different Bases of Consent
Gramsci rejects single-form theories of consent (either purely ideological or purely juridical) and instead argues consent varies by historical period and by class.
Fundamental questions: who consents, to what, and how? Are the instruments of consensus the same across classes and historical moments?
Passive vs active consent (leading to a distinction between passive consent and direct mass participation):
Passive consent:
Indirect, without grassroots initiative; the state instrumentalizes consent and treats the masses as “masses for manoeuvre.”
Example: the Church in certain contexts where intervention from the base would destabilize the church (Q 1771).
Active, direct consent:
Requires real interchange between rulers and ruled; mass participation and self-organization.
Associated with the “democracy of producers” (e.g., factory councils, civil society participation) and the expansion of consent from the base up.
Expansiveness of consent: consent should not be confined to formal political institutions; true democracy requires broad, bottom-up participation and prevents a purely bureaucratic, coercive domination.
Gramsci’s assertion about the dictatorship of the proletariat: it should be expansive, not repressive; a continuous circulation of people through all social levels (PWII 212).
Differential bases of consent: consent forms and their strength depend on the class, the historical phase, and the state’s capacity to mobilize civil society and cultural leadership.
Interrelations with the state and civil society: Gramsci links consent to the broader civil-society infrastructure (schools, factories, families) as sites of political leadership and mobilization.
Hegemony, the Integral State, and the Extended State
Core idea: Gramsci shifts the focus from a narrow view of the state as government to an ‘integral state’ that includes both coercive power (the coercive apparatus) and consensus-building institutions (civil society, political society).
Extended state: “Hegemony armoured by coercion” describes how consent is manufactured not just by formal institutions but through a broader network of social and cultural institutions.
Two related conceptual schematics:
Hegemony armed by coercion (passive consent as window-dressing for domination) and the role of civil society in producing consent.
The integral/state as the total complex of state activity that justifies, maintains, and gains the active consent of those ruled (SPN 244).
The dual functioning of hegemony:
Anti-statist/expansive dimension: the democratic/anti-bureaucratic leadership that seeks to mobilize the masses from below.
Statist/coercive dimension: the expansion of state power and apparatus to control and manage society.
Table (summarized): Hegemony armored by coercion vs. anti-passive revolution
Civil Society: Integral State vs Political Society
State/Domination: Coercive apparatus vs Leadership
Modes of consent: Consensus (leadership via civil society) vs Domination (bureaucratic control)
Is there a fundamental contradiction between these two aspects? Some scholars (e.g., Perry Anderson) have argued there is an antinomy, but Buci-Glucksmann argues that Gramsci’s concept of the integral state captures a necessary transformation in modern state power in response to capitalist restructuring.
Relevance to Keynesian/state-intervention models: Gramsci is the Marxist theorist of consent and legitimization in the era of extended state power and organized capitalism, not a pure Weberian view of politics as a profession.
Practical implication: understanding consent requires analyzing both civil society channels and state institutions; effective socialist transformation must build a mass-based, expansive hegemony rather than rely on coercive domination or mere formal democracy.
Parliamentary Democracy, Crisis, and Passive Revolution
Gramsci’s approach to parliamentary democracy focuses on its fragility and its oscillation under capitalist crisis, rather than simply labeling it as bourgeois democracy.
Conditions for “normal” parliamentary consent (as seen in the French Third Republic):
A large development of private energies in civil society; ideological/economic individualism; expansion of the economic base without destabilizing rural-urban balance; colonial expansion; strong link between universal suffrage and national feeling; absence of a popular-forces advantage.
In such contexts, the government can obtain permanent and organized consent through parties, public opinion, and the press (Q 1645).
Crises of consent are intensified by imperialism and monopoly capitalism and by the outcomes of revolutions, which can crack hegemonic apparatuses and make consent more aleatory (SPN 80f).
The expansion of the state into civil society, the growth of mass organizations, and the mass political party system can paradoxically both stabilize and destabilize parliamentary regimes.
The concept of passive revolution helps explain why parliamentary democracy can persist in form while its real democratic content withers in periods of capitalist crisis.
The conclusion: parliamentary democracy in crisis becomes a site for reformist, technocratic, or even authoritarian-statist strategies, which may preserve capitalist rule while diluting mass political sovereignty.
Reform, Reforms, and the Reformist Dialectic
Gramsci distinguishes reformist strategies that limit themselves to corporate or sectoral gains from a democratic, anti-passive revolution that seeks to transform power relations more broadly.
Reformist strategies as passive revolution: reformism tends to fragment the working-class movement and push it toward economic-corporative aims rather than a transformation of the political basis of society.
The dialectic between reform and revolution depends on balance of forces and strategic political intervention, not on a simple sequence of reforms leading to socialism.
Key caution: reforms separated from a broader strategy of mass empowerment may be absorbed back into capitalist relations as crises reemerge; hence the need for an anti-passive revolution that expands democratic control and challenges the traditional mode of political control.
Gramsci emphasizes that the revolutionary party must analyze the concrete national configuration of class forces to build an alternative historic bloc capable of broad popular support (SPN 118).
Central axiom: no democratic transition to socialism without expanding active consent; the working class must construct an enduring, expansive hegemony that supersedes narrow corporate interests (SPN 162–166).
The Risorgimento, Transformism, and Passive Revolution: Historical Examples
Key example: the Risorgimento in Italy as passive revolution. The bold move by moderates (Piedmont) created a liberal-national formation that avoided mass popular upheaval; feudal classes were transformed into a subsidiary governing caste rather than eliminated (SPN 115; Q 961).
Transformism: leadership of opposing parties absorbed into a non-threatening political configuration that allows the ruling class to maintain the social order while presenting reforms to mollify popular discontent (SPN 587; 97; 109).
Consequences in Europe: the same logic manifested in reformist winds across Europe, where demands from below were accepted in small, legal doses, while the mass movement was kept from achieving decisive, far-reaching change.
France vs Italy: the Jacobin movement in France could carry a broader revolutionary potential, while the Risorgimento in Italy demonstrated how reformist channels and a weakened popular base could consolidate a liberal-state bloc that served capitalist expansion (Q 78; Q 961).
The broader point: passive revolution is a technique used by the bourgeoisie to reorganize state power in response to crises, not the simple return to the old order; it reshapes political and social relations to preserve capitalist dominance while creating the conditions for future development of the productive forces.
Fascism, Fordism, and the Imperial Context: Passive Revolution as a Form of Stabilization
In the 1930s, passive revolution took multiple political forms—from New Deal-style state intervention and planning to fascism—that sought to reorganize production and state power to preserve capitalist dominance under new conditions (SPN 119–120).
Fascism as passive revolution: state intervention and corporatist organization expanded production and social cooperation, while the profits and property relations remained intact; it created a mass base for the traditional ruling classes and offered an expansion of productive forces under state direction (SPN 120).
The role of imperialism and monopoly capitalism: as capitalism reorganizes itself to overcome falling profit rates, state intervention expands; this expansion requires a new kind of political leadership and mass organization to sustain legitimacy (SPN 174–176, 177–185).
Gramsci’s broader aim here is to show how the state and civil society transform in response to new capitalist necessities; fascism is not simply a return to pre-modern forms but a new, complex form of capitalist rule.
Fordism and Americanism: Gramsci analyzes state intervention in the economy as a response to the crisis of profitability and as part of a broader reorganization of production and mass politics; this is part of the “extended state” project and the war of position in a modern, organized capitalism.
The Intellectuals, Knowledge, and Mass Democracy
Gramsci situates the intellectuals within the mass social formation and argues that changes in production blur old distinctions between intellectual work and manual labor. The mass can acquire intellectual tools, enabling broader democratic participation.
The shift from elite to mass intellectuals changes political possibilities: the state is no longer a domain controlled by a few; instead, knowledge and education become a site of mass political power.
Implication: the working class must win over intellectuals and create an organizational and ideological framework that extends democratic control over the entire political economy, not simply seize state power in a top-down fashion.
The danger of an absolute role for intellectuals: if intellectuals anchor themselves to a weak economic group or see the state as an absolute, the potential for democratic expansion is reduced.
Therefore, socialist transformation requires an expanded hegemony that unites diverse social groups beyond narrow corporate interests and fosters universal, mass-based political power.
Anti-Passive Revolution and the Path to Socialist Transformation
Anti-passive revolution denotes the strategic goal of building a democratic, expansive socialist movement that can win mass consent and develop direct popular control of both politics and economy.
The working class must subordinate reformist gains to a broader anti-passive strategy, creating a new historic bloc rooted in mass organization, popular consent, and a transformation of leadership-lead relationship.
This entails: expanding the terrain of the struggle into civil society; building alliances among diverse social groups; and pushing reforms that reconstitute politics and economics rather than simply modify them within the existing framework.
The critique of reformism is central: Gramsci argues reformism can be a form of passive revolution if it merely secures corporate interests or stabilizes capitalist social relations without challenging the underlying power relations.
Contemporary Relevance: Left Eurocommunism, Third Way, and Democratic Transformation
The text connects Gramsci’s theory to current debates about the possibility of a ‘third way’ that moves beyond social democracy and Bolshevism, aiming for democratic transformation without reproducing the state-dominated model.
It emphasizes that real democracy requires a transformed relationship between the individual and the state, with expanded direct democracy and mass self-management across economic and political life.
Reform strategies in today’s capitalism continue to reflect the tension between extending the state and expanding popular sovereignty; the question remains whether reforms can be designed to expand democratic control in the face of capitalist restructuring and imperialist pressures.
The womens’ movement and other new political formations illustrate how modern political participation extends beyond traditional channels, signaling potential shifts toward more plural and participatory forms of democracy.
The guiding principle remains: no democratic transition to socialism without an anti-passive revolution and an expanded, mass-based hegemony.
Key Takeaways and Core Concepts (Summary)
Gramsci reframes consent as a dynamic, historical negotiation between rulers and the ruled, not a static given.
Hegemony is a form of leadership based on the active consent of the masses, achieved through civil society and a broad political knowledge base, not merely through state coercion.
The extended/integral state provides a framework to understand how capitalism embeds itself in society through both legal-political institutions and the social and cultural infrastructure.
Passive revolution describes how the capitalist class reorganizes state power to preserve dominance while granting reforms that do not undermine core relations of production.
The Risorgimento, transformism, and fascism are historical examples of passive revolution in action, illustrating the variety of forms this strategy can take.
The war of position represents a long-term struggle to create an expansive democratic base, against reformist attempts to reduce the struggle to mere reforms within capitalist structures.
An anti-passive revolution requires mass self-organization, democratic control over the economy, and a new relationship between leaders and the led—leading to a socialist transformation grounded in popular consent.
The role of intellectuals is crucial: to bridge knowledge and mass political power, to transform their own relations to work and the mass, and to help build a universalist, rather than a purely elitist, approach to political leadership.
Notes and References (Key Citations)
PWII 212: “The dictatorship of the proletariat is expansive, not repressive.”
SPN 57: Gramsci on the supremacy of a social group manifesting in leadership before governmental power.
SPN 244: The State as the “integral” or “extended” state – the complex of activities that win active consent.
SPN 242-3, 234-5, 106: The extended state and the historical rooting of Gramsci’s concepts in late-19th/early-20th century state formation.
SPN 80f: Cracks in the hegemonic apparatus opened by imperialism and monopoly capitalism.
SPN 119-120: Fascism as passive revolution and the expansion of production under state direction.
SPN 114: Passive revolution as a criterion of interpretation (not a programme).
SPN 106, 117: The roots of passive revolution in Ordine Nuovo and the Risorgimento.
Q 961: Gramsci on the Risorgimento as passive revolution; the integration of diverse forces.
Q 78: Jacobin-Napoleonic expression vs. Italian reformist path; the Jacobins represented future needs as well as present needs.
Q 1636-8, 1638-9: Crises of hegemony in imperialism and the political forms that emerge.
SPN 74: The need for peasant masses and intellectuals to support a new liberal-national formation.
SPN 119-120: Italy’s fascist mechanism as an attempt to expand production within capitalist constraints (without broad democratic control).
SNP 219-220: “There are never restorations in toto” – nuance of Caesarism and fascism in Gramsci’s notes.
Q 1645: Conditions under which parliamentary consent can be permanent and organized.
Q 1328, Q 1825: Gramsci’s discussion of reformism, Bernstein, and the dialectic of reform and revolution.
SPN 119-120; SPN 587; 97; 109: Transformism and the absorption of radical groups into a reformist bloc.
SPN 115, 109: The Risorgimento’s weak hegemonic base and the moderates’ bourgeois state as a “bastard” state.
SPN 74: Gramsci on the need for an alternative bloc anchored in peasantry and intellectuals, not just a bourgeois alliance.
SPN 106-107: Marx’s Preface references to passive revolution and productive forces still finding room to move.