GRAMSCI’S POLITICAL THOUGHT Hegemony, Consciousness, and the Revolutionary Process by JOSEPH V. FEMIA CLARENDON PRESS - OXFORD 1981Osford University Press, Walton Sireet, Oxford OX2 6DP London Glasgow New York Toronto Dells Bombay “aleutia Madras Karackt Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairabi Dares Salaam Cape Town Melboune Auckland turd wsouernte swnnjrunies in Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City Publashed in the United States by Orford Unversity Press, New York © Joseph V. Femia 198) All rights recerned. No part af this publicatsan may he reproduced stored in a retrieval sistem, er transmitted, in any form or by eny means electronec, mechanical, photocopying, recording, ar therwise,toithout the prior permission of Oxford University Press British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Fem, Joseph V. Gramsca's political thought. 4 Gramsci, Antonse 2. Communism 3. Political scrence 1 Title 300 3731570924 HX208.7 ISBN 0-19-827251-0 Typeset by Oxprint Lid. Oxfind Printed in Great Britain at the Unaversity Press, Oxford by Eric Buckley Printer to the UnrversttyTo MY MOTHER, and to the memory of MY FATHERPreface Transiations of passages from Gramsci quoted in the course of this book are my own. This does not imply serious dissatisfac- tion with existing English translations, which are generally reliable. The problem is that most of his writings have not yet been translated. For reasons of consistency in the rendering of Gramsci’s terms and style, it was best, I decided, to work from the Italian original even when an English translation was available. Nevertheless, | have consulted, and in many cases benefited from, the English translations mentioned in the Bibliography. My debt to them is here gratefully recorded. As regards terminology in the Quaderni, the reader should be fore- warned that Gramsci (probably because of prison censorship) tended to use the neutral word ‘group’ when he apparently meant ‘class’ in its Marxist sense. The former word, however, is not always meant as a cuphemism for the latter. Whenever they appear in a quotation from the Notebooks, | translate gruppo and gruppi literally and leave it up to the reader to sort out Gramsci’s meaning in the particuiar instance The primary research for this study was completed before the appearance of Valentino Gerratana’s critical edition of the Quaderni del Carcere in 1975. Citations ‘in the text are conse- quently given with reference to the original Einaudi edition, which—it should be observed—has in no way been superseded by the new one. By grouping together notes on related subjects, the old edition has the merit of imposing a thematic structure on Gramsci’s fragmentary and disordered work. In so doing, it of course obscures the subtle development of his thought between 1929 and 1995, the period when he penned the Quademi. But how significant was this development? No one has managed to show that Gramsci’s ideas changed in any important or relevant ways during these years. Gerratana presents the notes in the order in which they were written and not according to topic headings. Indeed, his edition even reproduces preliminaryviii Preface drafts which Gramsci himself deleted! While this meticulous chronological approach certainly allows us to follow the rhythm of Gramsci’s thought processes. it hardly enhances our compre- hension of his ideas themselves. And it suffers from the disadvan- tage of rendering the reading of the entire work much more difficult and disorienting. For all these reasons, the original edition wili, i think. remain the standard one. (Detaiis of the works cited in this Preface may be found in the Bibliography.) ‘Turning now to acknowledgements. I should first point out that this stndy is a revised version of my Doctoral thesis, written for Oxford University and completed in the spring of 1979. I wish to express my deep gratitude to Leszek Kolakowski. my friend and academic supervisor, who—over a period of seven years—patiently read the thesis in draft form and provided invaluable advice, encouragement and criticism. Steven Lukes and Charles Taylor were scrupulous and generous examiners, whose acute observations stimulated me to amend parts of the manuscript. My debt to them is considerable. My thanks are also due to Sir Isaiah Berlin, who first prompted me to write about Gramsci and was kind enough to comment on some preliminary chapters—even though he had no formal responsi- bility for my supervision. At early stages in my research, 1 henefited from the criticisms and suggestions of a number of schoiars who have themselves written on Gramsci—Martin Clark. Giuliano Procacci. Alistair Davidson, and Alessandro Pizzorno. The last two were especialty helpful, as they read my ‘exploratory’ papers and kept me from travelling down some blind alleys. I must also thank the officials of the Gramsci Institute in Rome for allowing me (during the summers of 1973 and 1974) to use the excellent library housed there. Signora flsa Fubini was particularly kind in supplying me with ex- haustive and up-to-date bibliographical information. I am in- debted to Nuffield College. which, by awarding me a student- ship and travel grants. made this study possible. Finally, I am profoundly grateful to my wife. Josephine, for her assistance and infinite patience—and for putting up with Gramsci for so many vears, Earlier versions of some of the material in this book have appeared in the form of three articles by the author: ‘Hegemony and Consciousness in the Thought of Antonio Gramsci’, PoliticaPreface ix Studies, XXII (March 1975), pp. 29-48; ‘Gramsci, the Via Ttaliana. and the Classical Marxist-Leninist Approach to Revo- lution’. Government and Opposition, 14 (Winter 1979). pp. 6! 3 and “Ihe Gramsci Phenomenon: Some Reflections’. Political Studies. XXVU (September 1979). pp. 472-83. Joseph V. Femia December 1980Contents ABBREVIATIONS Brier Brocrapusca Skercu oF GraMscl INTRODUCTION AND PREVIEW ‘THE CONGEPT OF HEGEMONY BASE AND SUPERSTRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY: ARCHITECT OF THE NEW HEGEMONY PROLETARIAN HEGEMONY AND THE QUESTION OF AU'THORITARIANISM A PEACEFUL ROAD TO SOCIALISM? EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION Nores Brpuiocrapny Inpex Pages xii xii 23 217 286 299Abbreviations PCI Partito Comunista Italiano PSI Partito Socialista Italiano From Gramsci’s ‘Collected Works (full details will be found in the Bibliography): LC Leitere dal Carcere (1947 edition) MS Il materialismo storico ¢ ia filosofia di Benedetto Croce I Gli intellettuali ¢ Vorganizzazione della cultura R Il Risorgimento Mach. Note sul Machiavelli, sulla politica, e sullo stato moderno LVN Letteratura e vila nazionale PP Passato e presente SG Serittt giovanili, 1914-18 ON — L’Ordine Nuovo, 1919-1920 SM Sotto la Mole, 1916-1920 SF Soctalismo e fascismo, L’Ordine Nuovo, 1921-22 CPC — La costruzione del Partito comunista, 1923-26Brief Biographical Sketch of Gramsci 1891—Born at Ales in Sardinia. Fourth son ofa minor public official 1911—Awarded scholarship at University of Turin and begins studies there. Specializes in linguistics. 1914—Starts to contribute to the Socialist newspaper, I! Grido del Popolo. 1915-—~-Partly because of poor health, breaks off university studies. g%6—Begins to write a regular column for the Piedmont edition of Avanti/, the main Socialist Party newspaper. 1917—Becomes a leading figure in the Turin branch of the PSI. 1919—Co-founder and editor of L’Ordine Nuovo. Takes an active role in the Turin factory council movement. 1921—Becomes Central Committee Member of new Italian Communist Party, founded at Livorno in January. 1922—June. Arrives in Moscow as itaiian Representative on the Comintern Executive. While there, mects Giulia Schucht, who becomes his wife. 1923—December. Sent by Communist International to Vienna, from where he (ried to revive the Italian Party, torn by factional strife over the ‘United Front’ policy. 1924—-May. Returns to Italy after being elected Deputy in Veneto constituency. Soon becomes Secretary General of the PCI. . 1926-~November. Arrested by Fascist regime. 1928—Junc. Condemned to twenty years’ imprisonment. 1935—August. Transferred, for reasons of il] health, to a special clinic in Rome. 1937—April. Dies of brain haemorrhage.