REPRESENTATION: Gramsci's 'Hegemony'

Gramsci was a 1930's Italian Marxist. Like Marxists, he generally believed there is an elite which dominates wealth and power, and exploits the 'masses' to create his wealth. He argued that power is achieved and exercised not just through brute force (police, army etc.) but as much through culture. He suggests that the ideas which have become to be seen as 'common sense' tend to reflect the views and strategies of the elite, although hegemony is always unstable and open to counter-hegemonic challenge.