The notion of hegemony comes from hegemony, a Greek word that can be translated as "address". The term is used to refer to a predominance , a superiority or one preponderance .
For example: "The British driver will try to extend his hegemony in the new season", “This country imposes its cultural hegemony in the region for more than half a century”, "In the last decades, the hegemony of the tournament was shared by the two teams of the capital".
The concept of hegemony is often used to refer to domain which exercises an entity over other entities of the same type. Many times it applies to the supremacy of one country over another or others . There are, however, different meanings according to the context.
The world hegemony refers to the position of preeminence that reaches a State or a group of nations over the rest of the countries. According to various analysts, after the Second World War , U.S he managed to impose a world hegemony thanks to his military power, his economic development and his cultural influence. Nevertheless, China and the European Union They also hold great power.
The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci , for his part, coined the idea from cultural hegemony to point out a phenomenon of domination that does not resort to direct violence, but to social constructions . For Gramsci , the ruling class exercises cultural hegemony by imposing, through various mechanisms, its institutions, customs and values on the subordinate classes.
In this way, the subordinate classes assume the worldview of the dominant class as their own, leaving aside their own identity and perpetuating the status quo . Thanks to cultural hegemony, those who hold control do not need to appeal to weapons to preserve it.
