1. IR2002 THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Neo-Gramscian Theory

2. Antonio Gramsci (
Founder of the Communist Party of Italy (1921)
Elected to the Italian Parliament (1924)
Imprisoned by Mussolini’s Fascist Government in 1926
Principal work: Quaderni de Carcere—Prison Notebooks ( )

3. Intellectual Roots Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Karl Marx ( )

4. Philosophy
Radical social ontology—an ontology of praxis, an understanding of social reality as the conscious creation of human history

5. Philosophy (Continued
Gramsci: Reality is a product of the application of human will to the society of things, and this process of producing reality entails the historical transformation of human beings and their social lives.

6. TWO PRINCIPAL SOURCES
MARXISM
ITALIAN PHILOSOPHY

7. Conventional Marxist Model
SUPERSTRUCTURE
BASE

8. Major Elements of Gramscian Theory
Critique of Economic Determinism
Concept of Hegemony
Theory of Hegemony

9. Critique of Economic Determinism
Significance of culture and social consciousness
Background: Success of revolution in the East (Russia), failure in the West
Implicit critique of false consciousness thesis

10. Concept of Hegemony
Distinction between mainstream and Gramscian understandings of hegemony
Mainstream: power as capability or power as a relation

11. Gramscian Concept of Power
Dual nature of power
Centaur: half-man, half-beast
Coercion and Consent (capability and moral leadership)

12. Gramscian Theory of Hegemony
Distinction between Dominance and Hegemony
Political society/Civil society nexus

13. Theory of Hegemony (Continued
Significance of Civil Society
Institutions of Civil society
Moral education

14. SUMMARY Expanded notion of power Significance of cultural hegemony
Civil society/State nexus

15. Neo-Gramscian Theory Key Figure: Robert W. Cox
Principal Elements
Nature of Theory: Theory is always for someone and for some purpose.
Two distinct purposes of theory: (a) to be guide to help solve the problem posed within a particular perspective; and (b) reflecting upon the process of theorising itself.

16. Two Kinds of Theory Problem-solving Theory
Takes the world as it finds it
Make relationships and institutions work smoothly
Ceteris paribus assumption
Fixed reality
Assumption of value neutrality

17. Two Kinds of Theory (Continued)
Critical Theory
Stands apart from the prevailing order
Asks how that order came about
Questions the ceteris paribus assumption
Changing reality
Value commitment

18. Distinction Mainstream IR Stable world
Study of inter-relationships among states in which nation-states are the principal aggregations of political power
War and peace

19. Distinction (Continued)
Critical IR
Change in IR
Different kinds of states and non-state entities
Multiplicity of goals
Greater complexity

20. Frameworks of Action Historical Structures

21. Three Spheres of Activity
1. Organisation of Production (Social forces engendered by the production process).
2. Forms of state (Derived from different state/society complexes).
3. World Orders (Particular configurations of forces)

22. Social Forces
Material Capabilities
Ideas
Institutions

23. Material Capabilities
Technological and organisational
capabilities, natural resources, stocks of
equipment (industries and armaments),
and wealth

24. Ideas
Two Kinds:
(1) inter-subjective meanings: shared notions of the nature of social relations which influence habits and expectations of behaviour

25. Ideas
(2) Collective images of social order held by different groups of people (nature of power relations, meanings of justice and public good)

26. Institutions
Reflect the power relations at any given time. Institutionalisation is a process of stabilising a particular order.

27. Institutions
Close connection between institutionalisation and hegemony: Institutions provide ways of dealing with conflicts so as to minimise the use of force).

28. Institutions
Hegemonic strategy: to allow representation of diverse interests

29. COXIAN TRIAD

30. Two Key Questions
What are the mechanisms for maintaining hegemony in this particular historical structure?
What social forces and/or forms of state have been generated within it which could oppose and ultimately bring about a transformation of the structure?

31. Three Developments Internationalisation of the state.
Internationalisation of production.
Emergence of a transnational managerial class.

32. Three Possible Scenarios
New Hegemony
Non-hegemonic order
Counter-hegemony

33. Robert W. Cox
Key Text:
Production, Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (1987)