“Il vecchio muore e il nuovo non può nascere”: cesarismo ed egemonia nel contesto della crisi organica

Abstract

For reasons both internal and external to Gramscian studies, research into the subject of hegemony has over the last few years acquired a renewed importance, as new and ever more actual aspects of Gramsci’s reflections have been brought to light. Within this still to be fully explored framework, I believe it is of importance to pause over one aspect that has been as much overlooked by scholars as it is, in my view, central: this is the relation between hegemony and Caesarism. Although it is condensed into just a few prison notes (but present in an embryonic form in the pre-prison writings), the analysis of this phenomenon represents an important element in Gramsci’s investigations, allowing him to grasp the essence of the radical transformations characterizing the political scene at the turn of the twentieth century. The intention of my essay is to offer a general, but at the same time in-depth, treatment of the question, by shedding light on the complex constellation of concepts implied by the category of Caesarism (organic crisis, passive revolution, conception of the world, party) and on the historico-political framework lying behind it (modernity in all its complexity).