Overview
Meaning and example
Hegemony is leadership a social class builds by winning other groups’ consent. People follow it because they trust its leaders or see their own needs in its aims. Gramsci applied the idea both to ruling classes and to workers seeking power. A class could begin leading allies before it took control of government. Once in power, it could combine that leadership with force against its opponents.[1]
Gramsci’s example: Workers seeking peasant support had to take peasant needs seriously. He discussed farm machinery and credit as part of what a workers’ state could offer. A shared program could give peasants reasons to join the workers’ struggle.[2]