Neo-Gramscianism

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Neo-Gramscianism is a relatively new approach to the study of International Relations (IR) and the Global Political Economy (GPE) that explores the interface of ideas, institution and material capabilities as they shape the specific contours of the state formation. Using the same approach, neo-gramscianism analyzes the particular constellation of social forces, the state and the dominant ideational configuration to define and sustain world orders. In this sense, the neo-gramscian approach breaks the decades-old stalemate between the so-called realist schools of thought, and the liberal theories by historicizing the very theoretical foundations of the two streams as part of a particular world order, and finding the interlocking relationship between agency and structure. The theory is heavily influenced by the writings ofAntonio Gramsci. Other sources are Karl Polanyi, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Niccolò Machiavelli, Max Horkheimer, Adorno, Foucault and Derrida are cited as major sources within the Critical Theory of International Relations.

The beginning of the neo-gramscian perspective can be traced to York University professor emeritus, Robert W. Cox's article "Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory", in Millennium 10 (1981) 2, and "Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method", published in Millennium 12 (1983) 2. In his 1981 article, Cox demands a critical study of IR, as opposed to the usual "problem-solving" theories, which do not interrogate the origin, nature and development of historical structures, but accept for example that states and the (supposedly) "anarchic" relationships between them as Kantian Dinge an sich.

However Cox disavows the label Neo-Gramscian despite the fact that in a follow-up article, he showed how Gramsci's thought can be used to analyze power structures within the GPE. Particularly Gramsci's concept of hegemony, vastly different from the realists' conception of hegemony, appears fruitful. Gramsci's state theory, his conception of "Historic Blocks" -- dominant configurations of (structural) abilities, ideologies and institutions as determining frames for individual and collective action -- and of élites acting as "organic intellectuals" forging Historic Blocks, is also deemed useful.

The Neo-Gramscian approach has also been developed along somewhat different lines by Cox's colleague, Stephen Gill, distinguished research professor of political science at York University in Toronto. Gill contributed to showing how the elite Trilateral Commission acted as an "organic intellectual", forging the (currently hegemonic) ideology of neoliberalism and the so-called "Washington Consensus" and later in relation to the globalization of power and resistance in his book "Power and Resistance in the New World Order" (Palgrave 2003). Outside of North America, the so-called "Amsterdam School" around Kees van der Pijl and Henk Overbeek (at Free University of Amsterdam) and individual researchers in Germany, notably in Düsseldorf, Kassel and Marburg as well as at the University of Sussex in the UK, and other parts of the world, have adopted the neo-Gramscian critical method.

External links

Andreas Bieler, Adam David Morton:
* Theoretical and Methodological Challenges of neo-Gramscian Perspectives in International Political Economy [link]
* Teaching Neo-Gramscian Perspectives [link]
Kees van der Pijl, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, London Verso, 1984. Published online 2004 [link]

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