Subaltern Social Groups (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism) by Antonio Gramsci

Author:Antonio Gramsci [Gramsci, Antonio]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780231190398
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2021-08-09T22:00:00+00:00

FROM NOTEBOOK 13: BRIEF NOTES ON THE POLITICS OF MACHIAVELLI

§<18>. Some theoretical and practical aspects of “economism.” Economism—theoretical movement for free trade—theoretical syndicalism.1 One should examine to what extent syndicalism has its source in the philosophy of praxis and to what extent it owes its origins to the economic theory of free trade, that is, ultimately, to liberalism. One should look at economism in its most advanced form to see whether it is not a direct descendant of liberalism and has had very few connections, even initially, with the philosophy of praxis—connections that, in any case, are only extrinsic and purely verbal. From this point of view, one should examine the polemic between Croce and Einaudi that was triggered by Croce’s new preface (1917) to his Historical Materialism.2 Einaudi argues for the need to take into account the literature of economic history spurred by English classical economics. This can be satisfactorily addressed in the following way: the literature in question gave rise to economism through a superficial contamination with the philosophy of praxis. Thus, when Einaudi criticizes (in truth, very imprecisely) certain economistic degenerations, he is just fouling his own nest. The nexus between free-market ideologies and theoretical syndicalism is especially evident in Italy, where the admiration of syndicalists like Lanzillo & Co. for Pareto is well known.3 The significance of these two tendencies, however, is very different. The former belongs to a dominant and leading group; the latter belongs to a group that is still subaltern and has not yet consciousness of its strength, its possibilities, of how to develop; it, therefore, does not know how to escape from the phase of primitivism. The position of the free trade movement is based on a theoretical error, the practical origin of which is not hard to identify. It is based, that is, on a distinction between political society and civil society that is made into and presented as an organic distinction when, in fact, it is just a methodological distinction. Thus, economic activity is declared part of civil society and, therefore, the state must not intervene in its regulation. In reality, though, civil society and state are one and, therefore, it has to be made clear that laissez-faire, too, is a form of state regulation that is introduced and maintained by legislative and coercive means. It is an act of will that is conscious of its own ends, not the spontaneous, automatic expression of the economy. Laissez-faire liberalism, then, is a political program that, as long as it is victorious, aims to change a state’s leading personnel and its economic policy—in other words, to change the distribution of the national income. The case of theoretical syndicalism is different. It concerns a subaltern group that the theory of laissez-faire liberalism would impede from ever becoming dominant or from growing beyond the economic-corporative stage and rising to the level of ethico-political hegemony in civil society and domination of the state. As for laissez-faire liberalism: this has to do with a segment of the ruling class whose goal is not to change the structure of the state but government policy.

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