POL208Y5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Comparative Advantage, Trilateral Commission, Proletariat
23 Jun 2016
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But critical theory, unlike marxism, argues that ideas play a semi-autonomous role in shaping the world. Religion / international system / family / domestic politics / culture (etc. ) Note how the economic system and the realm of ideas influence the superstructure independently and in conjunction with one another. In his posthumously published prison notebooks, gramsci argued capitalism required an ideological force (which he referred to as a cultural hegemony ) in order to obtain the consent of the dominated class. This hegemonic ideology would cause people to think certain ways; to consider certain options or ways of doing things, but not others. At the same time, the hegemony of a set of ideas would never be complete. In other words, the working class would have a dual consciousness one part determined by the capitalists and another part indigenous to the workers. So there was at least the possibility that the power of the hegemonic ideology could be broken.
