Essay About Active Resistance And Everyday Cultural Practices

Notes Case
Coercion and Consent ppt.
Main Qs
How did the regime last so long
To what extent did the regime use state instruments to coerce and suppress opposition?
How popular was Fascism among the masses?
To what extent did society accept the states authority over it?
Gramscis Theory of Hegemony
‘Prison Notebooks- theorize why working class accepts its status under capitalism.
Dominance (‘hegemony) of bourgeois culture prevents working class conceiving of alternative social and political structures.
Hegemony exercised in everyday cultural practices and activities in ‘civil society
Renzo De Felice and ‘Years of Consent (1974)
Period of Depression (1929-36) is that of greatest consent for regime.
Majority of protests, economic, not political.
Essentially reproduces police interpretations.
Interprets absence of dissent as indication consent.
Policing and Subversion
Only incidents involving known anti-Fascists are defined as political.
Otherwise recorded as simple public disorder.
Local officers downplay dissent to superiors.
Informers exaggerate dissent to superiors to prove doing job.
Social historians use alternative sources e.g: oral history.
Focus on everyday practices that try to challenge Fascist hegemony.
Examples include wearing red tie, singing Socialists songs under noise factory machinery.
Defining Consent
Active Resistance: Engage in behavior designed to obstruct functioning regime