Gramsci’s Cultural Hegemony and Humanistic Marxism

Last Updated on November 9, 2025 by Karl Thompson

Antonio Gramsci was a neo-Marxist thinker best known for developing the concept of cultural hegemony — the idea that the ruling class maintains control not just through force, but through winning the consent of the masses. This post explains Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, how it differs from structural Marxism, and why his approach is often described as humanistic Marxism. It’s an essential perspective for understanding class, ideology, and resistance in modern capitalist societies.

Gramsci’s Humanstic Marxism

Gramsci (1891-1937) was the first leader of the Italian Communist Party during the 1920s. He introduced the concept of hegemony or ideological and moral leadership of society, to explain how the ruling class maintains its position and argued that the proletariat must develop its own ‘counter-hegemony’ (or alternative set of ideas) to win leadership of society from the bourgeoisie.

Gramsci rejected economic determinism as an explanation of social change: the transition from capitalism to communism will never come about simply as a result of economic forces. Even though factors such as mass unemployment and falling wages may create the preconditions for revolution, ideas play a central role in determining whether or not change will actually occur.

Hegemony

Gramsci saw the ruling class maintaining its power over society in two ways –

• Coercion – it uses the army, police, prison and courts to force other classes to accept its rule
• Consent (cultural hegemony) – it uses ideas and values to persuade the subordinate classes that its rule is legitimate

Cultural Hegemony and Revolution

In advanced Capitalist societies, the ruling class rely heavily on cultural hegemony to maintain their rule. Gramsci agrees with Marx that they are able to maintain consent because they control institutions such as religion, the media and the education system. However, according to Gramsci, the hegemony of the ruling class is never complete, for two reasons:

• The ruling class are a minority – and as such they need to make ideological compromises with the middle classes in order to maintain power
• The proletariat have dual consciousness. Their ideas are influenced not only by bourgeois ideology but also by the material conditions of their life – in short, they are aware of their exploitation and are capable or seeing through the dominant ideology.

Therefore, there is always the possibility of the ruling-class being undermined, especially in times of economic crises when the poverty of the working classes increases.

However, this will only lead to revolution if the proletariat are able to construct a counter-hegemonic bloc, in other words they must be able to offer moral and ideological leadership to society.

According to Gramsci, the working classes can only win this battle for ideas by producing their own ‘organic intellectuals’ – by forming a body of workers who are class conscious and are able to project a credible, alternative vision of what society would look like under communism.

Evaluation of Gramsci

It is true that many members of the working classes see through bourgeois ideology, for example the lads in Paul Willis’ study realised that education was not fair.

Gramsci has been criticised for under-emphasising the role of coercive political and economic forces in holding back the formation of a counter-hegemonic bloc – for example workers may be unable to form revolutionary vanguards because of the threat of state-violence.

Sources: Adapted from Robb Webb et Al’s Second Year A Level Sociology Text Book

Signposting

🔍 To see how Gramsci fits within the broader Marxist tradition, visit the Marxist Theory page for a structured overview of classical and neo-Marxist thought.

To understand how Gramsci’s theory fits into the broader Marxist perspective on society, it’s helpful to first explore the classical Marxist view of how capitalism shapes institutions and social structures.

Gramsci criticised the work of structural Marxism Althusser who had a more structural approach to understanding social change.

Here you can explore more criticisms of Marxism, including debates around determinism, agency, and ideology.

For real-world illustrations of how Marxist ideas continue to shape sociological thinking and activism, check out these examples of Marxism in society today.

This material is mainly relevant to the Theory and Methods module, taught as part of A-level sociology, usually in the second year of study!