From hegemonic projects to historical initiatives: rethinking the political practice of hegemony

Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand it attempts to retrace the emergence of the notion of the hegemonic project, in various debates, beginning with the debate within British Marxism on Thatcherism as a hegemonic project, but also the use of the notion of the hegemonic project in critical International Relations Theory. On the other hand, by means of a return to Gramsci’s thinking on hegemony, it attempts to rethink the notion of the hegemonic project in contemporary political debates in the left and to suggest that we must attempt to think of hegemonic projects not as simple political projects or electoral strategies, but rather as historical initiatives of the subaltern. On this basis, the possibility of a subaltern hegemonic practice of politics is revisited.

Gramsci; Hegemony; Hegemonic project; Marxism; Radical politics.