The Winding Paths of Hegemony: Giovanni Arrighi and the Limits of the Theory of Hegemonic Transitions

ABSTRACT

As many commentators highlighted, a distinguishing feature of Arrighi’s notion of hegemony lays in its Gramscian background. However, an in-depth analysis of the uses and problems of the Gramscian concept of hegemony in the work of Arrighi is still missing. The aim of this contribution is thus to fill this gap, by showing how the interpretation and use of Gramsci’s ideas of hegemony by Arrighi looks far more problematic than himself admitted. The main argument here defended is that the Gramscian definition of hegemony constitutes at the same time a veritable cornerstone and the weakest point in Arrighi’s general theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Giovanni Arrighi
• Gramsci
• hegemony
• Marxism
• capitalism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Arrighi (1993, 174) states:

The appeal and credibility of this claim were based on systemic circumstances created by the revolutionary upheavals of 1776–1848. For the national communities that had risen to power in the Americas and in many parts of Europe in the course of these upheavals were primarily communities of property holders … It was the ensemble of these communities that formed the “natural” constituency of British free-trade hegemony.

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Giuseppe Montalbano

Giuseppe Montalbano graduated from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and obtained his PhD in political theory and science at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, with a thesis on the EU post-crisis financial governance. His research interests and publications span from European financial governance to the critical theories of international relations and international political economy. He has been research fellow at the Department of Political Science of the Scuola Normale Superiore and he is currently teaching assistant at the LUISS School of Government.