Hegemony

Hegemony, in the Laclau-Mouffe framework developed in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985), is the central mechanism by which power sustains itself in modern societies. It operates not through coercion but through the construction of a common sense that renders alternatives unthinkable. The hegemonic operation is not conspiratorial — it does not require bad faith on the part of actors who benefit from it. It works at the pre-theoretical level, shaping perception before conscious deliberation begins. The factory owner who believed industrial capitalism was natural was not lying; he was inhabiting a hegemonic common sense. The danger lies precisely in its invisibility: positions presented as rational outcomes of balanced deliberation are the most effective hegemonic achievements because they appear to be no position at all.