Gramsci on Law, Morality, and Power.

The article focuses on Italian political theorist and activist Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony and state insofar as it helps to understand the role and nature of law in advanced Western democracies. At first sight, the exercise may seem artificial in that Gramsci never directed himself towards law as a primary area of study. The main effect of his studies of the state and law is to elucidate the nature of bourgeois rule. The condition for challenging the existing order is to understand its strengths and weaknesses and Gramsci's development of the concept of hegemony was instrumental in making this possible. The concept of hegemony is central to Gramsci's thought. In its most developed form, it amounts to a general theory of the practice of ruling classes. It corresponds to a specific form of class consciousness, that is, consciousness of specific class interests at both the economic and political levels. Its characteristic element is intellectual and moral leadership, which Gramsci sees as the basic condition for the enjoyment of political supremacy.