Gramsci and Democracy

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Abstract
In the Quaderni del Carcere, Antonio Gramsci provided the foundations for a socialist theory of democracy. This theory can be drawn from some of Gramsci's most important concepts: his views of intellectual activity on the one hand, and the conceptions of hegemony and civil society on the other. The former provides a general conception of a non-bureaucratic relationship between leaders and the led, the latter points to a participatory model of political activity. This thesis, however, is formulated within the framework of a realist epistemology in which the class structure is conceived as the long-term determinant of the general historical process. Hence, although Gramsci's thought sheds new light on a non-class domain of political activity, it is constrained by both socio-economic conditions and the realism of available knowledge.

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