The limits of passive revolution

Abstract

This article addresses what it identifies as the over-extension of the concept of passive revolution in recent writing on international political economy. It traces the evolution of the concept in the Prison Notebooks, where it is rooted in Antonio Gramsci’s development of the Marxist theory of bourgeois revolutions to account for episodes of what he called ‘revolution/restoration’ such as the Italian Risorgimento. But, in his attempt to offer a comprehensive alternative to the great liberal philosopher Benedetto Croce, Gramsci extends the concept to cases such as Mussolini’s fascism. The core meaning common to these uses is that of socio-political processes in which revolution-inducing strains are at once displaced and at least partially fulfilled. In more recent Marxist work, even this meaning is in danger of being lost. The article concludes by seeking to relocate passive revolution within Gramsci’s non-determinist, but still firmly materialist, understanding of Marx’s theory of history.

Translating passive revolution in Brazil

“…And there are even some who assimilate the notion of passive revolution as a political programme and not as an interpretative key of social processes (Vianna, 1998). It is also worth, as a last observation, reaffirming two risks present in the use of passive revolution as a category: those of creating a programme, and of diluting it in such a way that it can explain everything (Callinicos, 2010). So much so that the subsequent text is just a synthetic attempt at interpretation of Brazilian historical particularity and the construction of capitalism through a bourgeois revolution, which could be considered a passive revolution; a reading inspired by the writings of Nelson Werneck Sodré -a translation of Gramsci through the 'national' lenses of Sodré.…”

Optimism of the Will. Antonio Gramsci Takes in Max Weber

“…Unafraid that the revolution would be sidetracked by admitting legitimate moves from political competitors, Gramsci hoped to win some of them over; in any case, he admitted useful elements even from recalcitrant opponents, like Croce ( [120]; but see the critical remarks of [121]). Once the Moderates, for another example, recognized a point of contact with the communists, engaging in the dynamic of praxis could winnow good ideas from the chaff of tradition and reduce the distance between competitors who share the same goal [122].…”

Africa's passive revolution: crisis in Malawi

“…Indeed, passive revolution can be understood as the specific route to modernity taken by a range of European nation states (, 72), Bismarckian Germany being among the most prominent. Further extending the concept (for criticism see Callinicos ), Gramsci goes on to view passive revolution as a description of a much more expansive historical period in Europe.…”

“…Although the range of analyses of passive revolution suggest a real fecundity to the concept, Alex Callinicos notes that passive revolution suffers from ‘a chronic problem of over‐extension’ (, 492) within the notebooks themselves (covering everything from the Risorgimento to Italian Fascism, Americanism and Fordism), and a worsening over‐extension in the proliferation of secondary analyses. While recognising that the concept can be used to describe a set of ‘socio‐political processes in which revolution inducing strains are at once displaced and partially fulfilled’ (2010, 492), Callinicos cautions against the overenthusiastic application of a concept in such a variety of different contexts.…”