A Sociological Comparative Study to Vladimir Lenin and Antonio Gramsci's views on the State

Abstract

This theoretical study tries to illustrate, evaluate and compare Vladimir Lenin and Antonio Gramsci’s views on the state. In doing so the study will try to answer this vital question: to what extent Gramsci’s ideas were dependent upon those of Lenin and more specifically, to what extent is Gramsci’s analysis of the capitalist state ultimately no more powerful than that of Lenin? It should be emphasised that this study has been done according to a comparative methodology of the history of theory applied in the fields of sociology in general and political sociology in particular. Basically, this study has been done according to an explanatory approach applied in both fields of politics and political sociology. This study divided into eight sections. The first section devoted to the introduction. The second section deals with Lenin’s view on the revolution, power and the socialist state. The third section explains Gramsci’s view on the hegemony of the party and the state. Section four treats Gramsci’s view on hegemony and the civil society. Section five, however, is explaining Gramsci’s view on the proletariat, the leadership and the passive revolution. Section six will be dealing with Gramsci’s view on Western countries and his conception of civil society. Section seven evaluates and reviews both Lenin and Gramsci’s theories of the state. The last section presents the conclusion of the study.