Folk System And Cultural Hegemony

The ideology of folk system and cultural hegemony is the core of Antonio Gramsci ideological and political thought. This article attempts to explore the origin and basic connotation of Antonio Gramsci folk system through the realistic basis of contemporary European revolution and the theory of classical writers. Then the article elaborates and attaches great emphasis on the theory of cultural hegemony from the angle of folk system. After experiencing the European socialist revolution and analyzing the development of capitalist civil society, Antonio Gramsci put forward the theory of folk system and cultural hegemony through a redefinition of the concept of state, aiming to find a new path for the European revolution. The author intends to explain the cultural hegemony from the perspective of folk system through his interpretation of the “prison notes”. The article also points out that Louis Althusser’s theory of “ideological state apparatuses” is acceptance and development of civil system theory. Guided by the Marxism, this article has made objective evaluation and revealed the theoretical and practical significance of the folk system.Apart from the introduction, this thesis can be divided into four parts:The fist part mainly discusses the practical basis, theoretical source and the basic components of the folk system. Based on the experience of proletarian revolution in Western Europe and the observation of the development of civil society, Antonio Gramsci has attempted to find a new way for the proletariat revolution in Western Europe and the whole world. Through criticizing and absorbing Hegel’s and Marx’s civil society theory and Lenin’s “hegemony” theory, Antonio Gramsci has put forward the concept of “big country”, civil society and “cultural hegemony”, turning the research to a cultural superstructure level. The realistic and theoretical development of state and civil society has laid the foundation for the appearance of “civil system”, and “civil system”has been the key factor to the revolution victory.The second part expounds the specific contents of the civil system. There is a huge folk system which can “serve” the mandatory political society in Western European capitalist countries, and the bourgeoisie spread the cultural hegemony to other classes through folk system. This chapter intents to find the specific form of contemporary folk system by virtue of Antonio Gramsci’s theoretical text and to explore the whole process of diffusion of cultural hegemony or ideology by folk system through the analysis of the structure and function of folk system through the civil system. This article points out that the “intellectuals” are personality carriers to fight for cultural hegemony while “positional warfare” is the way to gain cultural hegemony. The ruling class stabilizes its political “hegemony” by spreading cultural hegemony through the folk system so as to organize the whole reproduction of the society in the end.The third part discusses Louis Althusser’s enrichment and development of folk system and cultural hegemony theory. Antonio Gramsci’s “civil system” concept has laid the most direct and effective theoretical foundation for Louis Althusser’s theory of “ideological state apparatus”. Louis Althusser regarded cultural hegemony as an important distinction between ideological state apparatus and repressive state apparatus, revealing the operation mechanism of ideological state apparatus, enriching and innovating Marxist theory of state and ideology.The fourth part discusses the development of folk system in our country, and introduces the ancestral hall, the teahouse, newspaper, Internet system, through analyzing our country special case of civil system. From Gramsci folk system and cultural leadership theory, The writer tries to find a solution the contemporary realistic problems existing in the private system, And then innovation and improving the work methods of the socialist ideological.