The Modern Prince: Elements of Politics

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Antonio Gramsci. The Modern Prince: Elements of Politics

 

It really must be stressed that it is precisely the first elements, the most elementary things, which are the first to be forgotten. However, if they are repeated innumerable times, they become the pillars of politics and of any collective action whatsoever.

 

The first element is that there really do exist rulers and ruled, leaders and led. The entire science and art of politics are based on this primordial, and (given certain general conditions)20 irreducible fact.

 

The origins of this fact are a problem apart, which will have to be studied separately (at least one could and should study how to minimise the fact and eliminate it, by altering certain conditions which can be identified as operating in this sense), but the fact remains that there do exist rulers and ruled, leaders and led.

 

Given this fact, it will have to be considered how one can lead most effectively (given certain ends); hence how the leaders may best be prepared (and it is more precisely in this that the first stage of the art and science of politics consists); and how, on the other hand, one can know the lines of least resistance, or the most rational lines along which to proceed if one wishes to secure the obedience of the led or ruled.

 

In the formation of leaders, one premiss is fundamental: is it the intention that there should always be rulers and ruled, or is the objective to create the conditions in which this division is no longer necessary? In other words, is the initial premiss the perpetual division of the human race, or the belief that this division is only an historical fact, corresponding to certain conditions? Yet it must be clearly understood that the division between rulers and ruled – though in the last analysis it has its origin in a division between social groups – is in fact, things being as they are, also to be found within the group itself, even where it is a socially homogeneous one.

 

In a certain sense, it may be said that this division is created by the division of labour, is merely a technical fact, and those who see everything in terms of "technique", "technical" necessity, etc., speculate on this coexistence of different causes in order to avoid the fundamental problem.

 

Read the rest of it in Gramsci Archives . I was reading some of my old favourites and this article poped out. It has something to say about the Elements of Politics and actually enjoyed it very much. Sharing is caring..enjoy it