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Friday, July 9, 2021

Meaning of Hegemony Explained and Defined

Definition: Hegemony is a state of total rule of one state over those around it geographically in a political, economic or military way. The absolute power which is in the hands of this society has been achieved while successfully promoting geopolitical interests beyond any other group in its vicinity so that they can not compete. Hegemony is the ability to dictate the laws and arrangements under which relations between states or groups exist in a defined geopolitical area. Today the term is used to describe the sociological arrangements under which the relations between the various groups exist within one society. The word is more in the context of "cultural hegemony" than of hegemony between countries. The term comes from ancient Greece where it was used to describe the dominance of one city-state over all the city-states around it.

According to the Italian neo-Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci (on Hegemony), the power of the bourgeoisie is that control rests not only on its economic foundation (infrastructure), but mainly on its superstructure ( intellectuals , senior figures in the world of culture , law , religion and politics ) - the value and ideological foundations desired by it. When the bourgeoisie is able to assimilate its values ​​and turn them into a model of imitation and admiration among the lower classes, it no longer has to impose its rule by force of arms.

Hegemony is a state of absolute (or almost absolute) rule in a society, concentrated in the hands of a defined social group, and manifested in the sharing of the rulers in the material resources that society with its ideological and ideological rulers. The hegemony describes a state of control over social arrangements, norms and rules, and it shapes the face of society according to hegemonic values ​​that serve the interests and needs of the ruling group.

Hegemony also weakens the cultural system as a whole, and it permeates all the intellectual aspects of daily life. It is an unconscious system of control, in which the hegemonic components and values ​​are not at all perceived as part of a dominant culture or ideology, but are seen as an integral part of society and its values, regardless of the control group. In this way, minorities also identify with these values, which take on an extra-political garnet, and intensify into apparent facts, myths or absolute statements that are true of the same society.