State, capital and civil society

In the Gramscian approach to historical blocs there is no such thing as a noumenal reality and, thus, no such thing as a purely phenomenal appearance composed of culture or ideology. For Gramsci, the integral state is not the mere superstructure of the economic base, industrial capitalism is not the real noumenon of Fordist societies, and civil society does not simply contain some ‘real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness’. This chapter argues that the various moments of the social totality constitute an interdependent and contradictory historical bloc and, within this bloc, the most determinant factors reproduce themselves, change or become open to critical scrutiny and practical transformation when significant fault lines open or cracks widen enough in what is otherwise a historical construction protected by specific, but always changing combinations of coercion and consent. By examining the dialectical relationship between the integral state, capitalism and civil society as key components of modern historical blocs, this chapter builds on Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis as sketched in the Prison Notebooks and draws lessons useful for understanding the contradictions of contemporary neoliberal globalization, the rise of neofascism and the global articulation of emancipatory and counter-hegemonic struggles.