Is violence the only way to subvert dominant “hegemony”?
No. The way of challenging the dominant hegemony is political activity. But we must understand a distinction that Gramsci proposed between two different kind of political strategies to achieve the capitulation of the predominant hegemony and the construction of the socialist society: War of manoeuvre: • Frontal attack; • The main goal is winning quickly; • Especially recommended for societies with a centralised and dominant state power that have failed in developing a strong hegemony within the civil society (i.e. Bolshevik revolution, 1917). War of position: • Long struggle; • Primarily, across institutions of civil society; • Secondly, the socialist forces gain control through cultural and ideological struggle, instead of only political and economic contest; • Especially suggested for the liberal-democratic societies of Western capitalism with weaker states but stronger hegemonies (i.e.: Italy); • These countries have more extensive and intricate civil societies that deserve a longer
