Reference no: EM133932018

Question

Author, Kenneth Guest, writes about state power and talks about hegemony. What is your understanding of hegemony and what are your personal observations of the positive and negative aspects of hegemony in our culture? Kenneth guest ASPECTS OF STATE POWER The rituals and routines of the state also include overt practices of coercion. In fact, political philosopher Max Weber argued in 1919 that the fundamental char- acteristic of a state is its ability to establish a monopoly on the legitimate use of force in a particular territorial domain (Parsons 1964). States exert coercive power not only through military and police forces but also through the guarding and regulating of borders; the determining of criteria for citizenship; and the enforc- ing of discipline through rules, regulations, taxation, and the judicial system. is also established through hegemony, which is the ability of a State power dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force (Gramsci 1971). How is this done? As discussed in Chapter 2, cultural institutions of government, media, schools, and religions shape what group members think is normal, natural, and possible, thereby influ- encing and limiting the scope of human action and interaction. Group mem- bers develop a way of seeing the world-a set of beliefs about what is normal and appropriate-that subconsciously limits their life choices and chances. As discussed in Chapter 6, states reinforce this hegemony by promoting intense feelings of nationalism (a sense of shared history, culture, language, destiny, and purpose, often through invented traditions of holidays, parades, national songs, public ceremonies, and historical reenactments) to promote the perception of the state as a unified entity. The hegemonic aspect of power can make group members discipline their own behavior, believing and acting in certain "normal" ways (often against their own interests), even without threat of punishment for misbehavior (Foucault 1977). Within the hegemony of ideas, some thoughts and actions actually become unthinkable and undoable. Others seem reasonable, necessary, and desir- able; these include collective actions for the greater good of the "nation," even going so far as killing and being killed. Some modern states, however, are unable to gain the cooperation of their populace through consent and must resort to coercion. Where do you see this dynamic at work in the world today? How does the state become real for you? How are encounters with the state differentially shaped by one's race, gender, sexuality, citizenship, or immigration status?