Waiting for Gramsci: State formation, passive revolution and the international

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 597-621

  Morton, Adam David ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 36348961939     PISSN: 03058298     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/03058298070350031301     Document Type: Article

References (152)

1. Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1956), p. 60.
2. C. Calhoun, 'Why Historical Sociology', in Handbook of Historical Sociology ed. G. Delanty and E. F. Isin (London: Sage, 2003), 389.
3. R. D. Germain and M. Kenny, 'Engaging Gramsci: International Relations Theory and the New Gramscians', Review of International Studies 24, no.1 (1998): 4, 20.
4. See A. D. Morton, 'Historicising Gramsci: Situating Ideas in and beyond their Context', Review of International Political Economy 10, no.1 (2003): 118-46 for a rebuttal of this approach to the history of ideas.
5. R. Shilliam, 'Hegemony and the Unfashionable Problematic of "Primitive Accumulation″, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33, no.1 (2004): 72-3.
6. J. Rosenberg,'Why is There No International Historical Sociology?', European Journal of International Relations 12, no.3 (2006): 311.
7. Ibid., 337, n.8.
8. On how the unevenness of development precedes factors of its combination see G. Novack, Understanding History: Marxist Essays (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1972), 98
9. and also J. Rosenberg, 'Globalisation Theory: A Post-Mortem', International Politics 42, no.1 (2005): 68-9, n.28
10. and B. Teschke, The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Making of Modern International Relations (London: Verso, 2003).
11. These insights, of course, build on Leon Trotsky's reflections on the world-historical process of uneven and combined development, indicating the insertion and adaptation of states to different stages of development, see L. Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution, Vol. I (London: Victor Gollancz, 1936), 25-32, 72, 334-5.
12. D. Germino, Antonio Gramsci: Architect of a New Politics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990), 221.
13. P. Anderson, 'Force and Consent', New Left Review (II) no.17 (2002), 21.
14. It has been astutely noted that the concept of passive revolution is a counterpart to the concept of hegemony, see R. W. Cox, 'Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 12, no.2 (1983): 167. However, in IR the predominant tendency has been to inflate the relevance of class hegemony to understanding world order. The role of the state in capitalism to create and sustain accumulation through force, as emblematic features of passive revolution, has been barely explored.
15. Beginnings of this endeavour are evident in the extended analysis of R. W. Cox, Production, Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), 230-44;
16. K. van der Pijl, Transnational Classes and International Relations (London: Routledge, 1998), 78-83,
17. and K. van der Pijl, Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 17-21.
18. A. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. and trans. Q. Hoare and G. Nowell-Smith (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), 115, Q10II§61. Hereafter reference is made to the anthology (SPN) as well as the notebook number (Q) and section (§).
19. Q. Hoare and G. Nowell-Smith, 'Notes on Italian History: Introduction', in Gramsci, SPN, 44-5.
20. A. Gramsci, Letters from Prison, Vol.I, ed. F. Rosengarten, trans. R. Rosenthal (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 153. Hereafter LfP1.
21. Gramsci, SPN: 140, Q13§13.
22. See A. D. Morton, Unravelling Gramsci: Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Political Economy (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 51-6.
23. G. Balakrishnan, 'States of War', New Left Review (II) No.36 (2005), 14-15.
24. A. Gramsci, Selections from Cultural Writings, ed. D. Forgacs and G. Nowell-Smith, trans. W. Boelhower (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985), 222, Q17§8. Hereafter SCW.
25. Gramsci, SCW: 220, Q17§3.
26. Gramsci, SCW: 188, Q29§7;
27. Gramsci, LfP1: 360.
28. Gramsci, SPN: 54n.4, Q25§2.
29. A. Gramsci, Further Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. and trans. D. Boothman (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1995), 20, Q5§85. Hereafter FSPN.
30. Gramsci, SPN: 54n.4, Q25§2.
31. A. Gramsci, Letters from Prison, Vol.II, ed. F. Rosengarten, trans. R. Rosenthal (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 67-8. Hereafter LfP2.
32. Gramsci, SCW: 222, Q17§8.
33. Gramsci, SCW: 231, Q5§123.
34. Gramsci, SPN: 53, Q25§5.
35. Gramsci, SCW: 234, Q5§123.
36. Gramsci, SPN: 143, Q13§13, emphasis added.
37. L. Althusser, Machiavelli and Us, trans. and intro. G. Elliot (London: Verso, 1999), 71.
38. Gramsci, SCW: 227-8, Q5§123.
39. Gramsci, SCW: 229, Q5§123
40. and A. Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, Vol.I, ed. and intro. J. A. Buttigieg trans. J. A. Buttigieg and A. Callari (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), 22-4, Q3§16. Hereafter PN1.
41. Gramsci, SCW: 223, Q5§123.
42. Gramsci, SCW: 230, Q5§123.
43. Gramsci, SPN: 54n.4, Q25§2.
44. Gramsci, SPN: 93, Q19§26.
45. Gramsci, SPN: 98, Q19§26.
46. Gramsci, SPN: 99, Q19§26; 101, Q19§26.
47. Gramsci, SPN: 131, Q13§1.
48. Gramsci, SPN: 91, Q19§26.
49. Gramsci, SPN: 94, Q19§27.
50. A. Gramsci, 'Some Aspects of the Southern Question' (1926), in Pre-Prison Writings, ed. R. Bellamy, trans. V. Cox (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 331-7. Hereafter PPW.
51. Gramsci, SPN: 93, Q19§26.
52. Gramsci, 'Some Aspects of the Southern Question' (1926), in PPW: 329.
53. Ibid., 324-5.
54. A. Gramsci, 'The Italian Catholics' (1918) in History, Philosophy and Culture in the Young Gramsci, ed. P. Calvalcanti and P, Piccone (Saint Louis: Telos Press, 1975), 113. Hereafter HPC.
55. Gramsci, 'The Peasants and the State' (1918), in HPC: 75-9.
56. Gramsci, 'Lenin's Work' (1918), in HPC: 134.
57. A. D. Morton, 'The Age of Absolutism: Capitalism, the Modern State and International Relations', Review of International Studies 31, no.3 (2005): 495-517.
58. B. Teschke, 'Debating "The Myth of 1648": State Formation, the Interstate System and the Emergence of Capitalism in Europe: A Rejoinder, International Politics 43, no.5 (2006): 565.
59. The overriding emphasis on state classes imposing capitalist transformations is also evident in H. Lacher, Beyond Globalisation: Capitalism, Territoriality and the International Relations of Modernity (London: Routledge, 2006), 95-6.
60. Morton, Unravelling Gramsci, 42-51
61. and N. Davidson, 'How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? - 1', Historical Materialism 13, no.3 (2005): 16.
62. But see A. Bieler and A. D. Morton, 'The Gordian Knot of Agency-Structure in International Relations: A Neo-Gramscian Perspective', European Journal of International Relations 7, no.1 (2002): 5-35 for one route.
63. A. Gramsci and P. Togliatti, 'The Lyons Theses' (1926), in Selections from Political Writings, 1921-1926, ed. and trans. Q. Hoare (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1978), 352. Hereafter SPW2. Whilst five theses for the Lyons Congress of the PCI in 1926 were drafted only this one, the fourth, on 'The Italian Situation and the Tasks of the PCI' has been translated. It goes without saying that the four additional remaining theses could well yield significant insights into Gramsci's theorisation of uneven development, these include drafts on: 1) the international situation; 2) the national and colonial question; 3) the agrarian question; and 4) the trade unions. The omission is noted by Quintin Hoare in SPW2, 498n.194 and perhaps reflects the same omission in the earlier Italian edition,
64. see A. Gramsci, La costruzione del partito comunista: 1923-1926 (Torino: Einaudi, 1971), 488-513, which only carries the same 'fourth' thesis.
65. Gramsci, PN1: 230-1, Q1§151.
66. A. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, Vol-II, ed. and trans. J. A. Buttigieg (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 97, Q3§103. Hereafter PN2.
67. Morton, 'The Age of Absolutism', 507-15.
68. Gramsci, SPN: 58, Q19§24.
69. Gramsci, SPN: 80-2, Q19§24.
70. A. Showstack Sassoon, Gramsci's Politics, 2nd edn (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987), 210.
71. Gramsci, SPN: 100, Q19§26.
72. Gramsci, SPN: 281, Q22§2.
73. G. Garibaldi, My Life, trans. S. Parkin (London: Hesperus Books, 2004), 15.
74. N. Davidson, 'How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? - 2', Historical Materialism 13, no.4 (2005): 19.
75. Gramsci, SPN: 131, Q13§1.
76. F. Halliday, Revolution and World Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Sixth Great Power (London: Macmillan, 1999), 246.
77. Gramsci, FSPN: 330, Q10I§0; 348-50, Q10I§9.
78. A point noted but undeveloped in Lacher, Beyond Globalisation, 93, 128.
79. N. Davidson, 'The French Revolution is Not Over', International Socialism no.113 (2007): 160, 162.
80. Gramsci, SPN: 82-3, Q19§24.
81. Gramsci, SPN: 132, Q13§1.
82. Gramsci, SPN: 115, Q10II§61.
83. E. Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975), 166.
84. Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution, 26.
85. It is worth noting that the concept of passive revolution was also developed by Gramsci as an explicit elaboration of Marx's 'Preface' to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy;
86. see K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859), in K. Marx and F. Engels, Collected Works, Vol.XXIX (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1987), 261-5.
87. Gramsci, SPN: 220, Q13§27; 243, Q13§7.
88. Gramsci, PN1: 137, Q1§44.
89. Gramsci, FSPN: 522n.21, Q7§28, emphasis added.
90. Gramsci, PN2: 232, Q4§57.
91. Gramsci, SPN: 179-80, Q13§17.
92. Significantly, Roger Simon, Gramsci's Political Thought: An Introduction (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1991), 34 has noted that 'Gramsci's account of the French Revolution verges on the idealistic'. Also signal differences can be witnessed between this reading and additional Marxist accounts;
93. see E. Hobsbawm, Echoes of the Marseillaise: Two Centuries Look Back at the French Revolution (London: Verso, 1990)
94. and G. Comninel, Rethinking the French Revolution: Marxism and the Revisionist Challenge (London: Verso, 1987).
95. Gramsci, SPN: 179, Q13§17.
96. Gramsci, SPN: 180, Q13§17.
97. Gramsci, SPN: 114, Q15§62; 116, Q10II§61; 180, Q13§17.
98. Gramsci, SPN: 107, Q15§17; 108-9, Q15§11; 114, Q15§62.
99. S. Kaviraj, 'A Critique of the Passive Revolution', Economic and Political Weekly 23, no. 45-7 (1988): 2429-44.
100. Gramsci, SPN: 105-6, Q15§59.
101. K. Marx, Capital, Vol.I (1887), in K. Marx and F. Engels, Collected Works, Vol. XXXV (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1996), 739
102. and E. Mandel, Late Capitalism, trans. J. De Bres (London: Verso, 1975), 54.
103. R. Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital (1913), trans. A. Schwarzschild (London: Routledge, 2003 edn), 351.
104. F. Halliday, 'State and Society in International Relations: A Second Agenda', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 16, no.2 (1987): 220, 226.
105. Cox, 'Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations', 169.
106. P. Anderson, English Questions (London: Verso, 1992), 115.
107. B. Badie and P. Birnbaum, The Sociology of the State, trans. A. Goldhammer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 74, 97-9.
108. F. Halliday, 'International Society as Homogeneity: Burke, Marx and Fukuyama', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 21, no.3 (1992): 458-9.
109. P. Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World (London: Zed Books, 1986), 43.
110. Gramsci, FSPN: 350, Q10I§9.
111. Gramsci, SPN: 116-17, Q10II§61 emphasis added.
112. A. Gramsci, 'The Return to Freedom...' (1919), in Selections from Political Writings, 1910-1920, ed. Q. Hoare, trans. J. Matthews (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1977), 69-72. Hereafter SPW1.
113. Gramsci, 'Towards the Communist International' (1919) and 'The Development of the Revolution' (1919) in SPW1: 79-82 89-93.
114. Gramsci, 'Revolutionaries and the Elections' (1919) and 'Predictions' (1920) in SPW1: 127-9, 356-9.
115. Gramsci, SCW: 245, Q19§5; SPN: 8.4, Q19§24.
116. Gramsci, PN2: 275, Q5§8.
117. Gramsci, PN1: 259-65, Q2§16; PN2: 11-13, Q3§5.
118. A. D. Morton, 'Disputing the Geopolitics of the States-System and Global Capitalism', Cambridge Review of International Affairs 20, no.4 (2007), forthcoming.
119. Gramsci, SPN: 176, Q13§2.
120. Gramsci, SPN: 240, Q14§68.
121. Gramsci, SPN: 84, Q19§24.
122. See Morton, 'Disputing the Geopolitics'.
123. Gramsci, PN2: 56, Q3§55.
124. Gramsci, SPN: 279, Q22§1.
125. A. Gramsci, A Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935, ed. D. Forgacs (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1988), 264-5, Q15§62.
126. Gramsci, SPN: 120, Q10I§9;
127. 'The Lyons Theses' (1926) in SPW2: 350.
128. Gramsci and Togliatti, 'The Lyons Theses' and Gramsci, 'A Study of the Italian Situation' (1926) in SPW2: 352, 403.
129. Gramsci, 'Italy and Spain' (1921) in SPW2: 23.
130. Gramsci, SPN: 120, Q10I§9; FSPN: 350, Q10I§9
131. Gramsci and Togliatti, 'The Lyons Theses', in SPW2: 352, 371.
132. Gramsci, SPN: 68, Q19§24.
133. Gramsci, SPN: 68, Q19§24.
134. Gramsci and Togliatti, 'The Lyons Theses', in SPW2: 352.
135. Gramsci, 'The Social Function of the Nationalist Party' (1918) in HPC: 105.
136. Gramsci, 'The Italian Catholics' (1918) and 'Wilson and the Russian Maximalists' (1918) in HPC: 114, 129-31.
137. Gramsci,'The Revolution against Capital' (1917) in PPW: 39-42.
138. Gramsci, 'The Russian Utopia' (1918) in HPC: 149-55.
139. Gramsci, 'The Return to Freedom' (1919); 'Revolutionaries and the Elections' (1919);
140. 'Predictions' (1920) in SPW1: 69, 128, 357.
141. Gramsci, 'The War in the Colonies' (1919) in SPW1: 60.
142. P. McMichael, 'Incorporating Comparison within a World-Historical Perspective: An Alternative Comparative Method', American Sociological Review 55, no.3 (1990): 392 original emphasis.
143. Gramsci, SPN: 240, Q14§68.
144. Gramsci, SPN: 176, Q13§2 and A. Showstack Sassoon, 'Globalisation, Hegemony and Passive Revolution', New Political Economy 6, no.1 (2001):11-13.
145. See A. D. Morton, 'Mexican Revolution, Primitive Accumulation, Passive Revolution', Paper presented at the 47th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, San Diego/California (22-25 March 2006)
146. and A. D. Morton, 'Global Capitalism and the Peasantry in Latin America: The Recomposition of Class Struggle', The Journal of Peasant Studies 34, no.3-4 (2007), forthcoming.
147. K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), intro. E. Hobsbawm (London: Verso, 1998 edn), 48.
148. K. Marx, 'Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844' (1844), in K. Marx and F. Engels, Collected Works, Vol. III (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1975), 296-7.
149. See A. D. Morton, 'Structural Change and Neoliberalism in Mexico: "Passive Revolution" in the Global Political Economy', Third World Quarterly 24, no.4 (2003): 631-53
150. and S. Shields, 'Historicising Transition: The Polish Political Economy in a Period of Global Structural Change: Eastern Central Europe's Passive Revolution?', International Politics 43, no.4 (2006): 474-99.
151. B. Jessop,'Gramsci as a Spatial Theorist', in A. Bieler and A. D. Morton (eds) Images of Gramsci: Connections and Contentions in Political Theory and International Relations (London: Routledge, 2006), 31.
152. Gramsci, SPN: 182, Q13§17 emphasis added.