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Kompass

Thinkers and political figures

Photographic portrait of Antonio Gramsci as a young man.

Portrait: Photograph, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Antonio Gramsci

Country
Italy
Era
1891–1937
Tradition
Western Marxism

Italian communist who, writing from a fascist prison, argued that ruling classes hold power mainly through cultural consent rather than force — an idea that has since been adopted across the political spectrum.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • Argued that ruling groups maintain power through hegemony — consent manufactured in culture, schools and media — rather than mainly through coercion
  • Held that the left must win a "war of position" in civil society before it can win state power
  • Rejected the view that economic conditions alone determine political outcomes
  • Supported the factory council movement in Turin as a model of workers running production directly
  • Argued that every social group produces its own intellectuals, and that ordinary people already engage in philosophy
  • Opposed fascism from its beginning and was imprisoned by Mussolini’s government until shortly before his death
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Wealth and inequality

8

Evidence: Well documented

The state in the economy

10

Evidence: Well documented

Personal liberty

55

Evidence: Documented

Tradition and change

84

Evidence: Well documented

Nation and the world

30

Evidence: Documented

Religion and the state

14

Evidence: Documented

Power and its limits

40

Evidence: Documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Environment and growth, Crime and punishment

Sources

  • Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks · 1971
  • Giuseppe Fiori, Antonio Gramsci: Life of a Revolutionary · Verso · 1970

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