Cultural Hegemony (for extra credits)

Cultural Hegemony

 Cultural hegemony, a concept articulated by Italian scholar and activist Antonio Gramsci, refers to domination, or rule, achieved through ideological (cultural) means. The term refers to the ability of a group of people to hold power over social institutions, and thus, to strongly influence the everyday thoughts, expectation, and behavior of the rest of society by directing the normative ideas, values, and beliefs that become the dominant worldview of a society. Cultural hegemony functions by achieving the consent of the masses to abide social norms and the rules of law by framing the worldview of the ruling class, and the social and economic structure that follows it, as just, legitimate, and designed for the benefit of all.

 Gramsci developed this concept based on Karl Marx’s theory that the dominant ideology of society reflected the beliefs and interests of the ruling class. Consent to the rule of dominant group is carried out through the dissemination of dominant ideologies via social institutions like education, media, family, religion, politics, and law, among others. Because institutions do the work of socializing people into the norms, values, and beliefs of the dominant social group, if a group controls the institutions that maintain social order, then that group rules all others in society. Cultural hegemony is most strongly manifested when those ruled by the dominant group come to believe that economic and social conditions are natural and inevitable, rather than created by people with a vested interest in a particular social order.