Gramcsi

Mayo pays tribute to the educational influence of Antonio Gramsci, considered one of the greatest social thinkers and political theorists of the 20 th century. Here, Mayo presents sound social theory, broad application and reinvention of Gramsci's ideas on hegemony, schooling and education under the mantel of neoliberalism. Historically, Gramsci represented a break with traditional Marxian thought in which revolutionary change needed to occur through militant action, such as the seizure of the state and control from the top. Gramsci grounded his Marxism in the " lived experience " of subaltern classes, a spontaneous " common sense " out of which emerges a " good sense " that grasps the totality and its transformative potentialities (Burawoy 2012). For Gramsci, organic intellectuals, through their close connection to a revolutionary class, elaborate the " good sense " out of the " common sense ". Traditional intellectuals, on the other hand, think of themselves as autonomous and above classes, serving to stultify the good sense of the revolutionary class. Here Gramsci seeks a common sense vehicle that will serve the working class as the state serves the dominant classes. For Gramsci, schooling and education, broadly-conceived, are deeply implicated in forging " common sense " , producing knowledge in the interest of ruling groups or producing a counter-knowledge and a different common sense that represents the interests and perspectives of workers and other subordinate groups. Consequently, Gramsci has been an inspiration to critical educators as he offers a view in which change is possible from below through educational work–the making of a new common sense, the project of building a new hegemony and the necessary work against the traditional intellectuals whose knowledge making activity represents the interests of capitalists. Like Paulo Freire, Gramsci's view coheres with recognition of the necessity of transforming consciousness, not merely of seizing the instruments of social control. Gramsci (1971:340) writes that:

This essay examines the class dynamics, political rationale, and consequences of Brazil’s anti-corruption investigations and right-wing anti-corruption protests from 2013 to 2018. Since 2014, Brazil has been plunged into political crisis following Dilma Rousseff’s electoral victory; this political crisis has been driven by the largest anti-corruption investigation in Brazil’s history — Lava Jato (“Car Wash”). Led by previously obscure regional judge Sérgio Moro, Lava Jato has led to the indictment of almost the entirety of Brazil’s political class for corruption and the imprisonment of leading politicians and businessmen, including former president Lula da Silva. This essay makes the case that far from being a necessary step in ending Brazil’s culture of political impunity and endemic corruption, Lava Jato has been a politically driven process launched by a faction of Brazilian capital against the Workers’ Party (PT) and the party’s allies in business.

The debate on the challenges of democratization in post-conflict societies usually and reasonably focuses on overcoming the long years of division and conflict, nationalisms, security, the divided economy etc. Additional to this problematique, I suggest that we take into consideration the wider, significant challenges that states face.
First, I present how representative democracy and its basic institutions, mainly political parties, parliaments and elections, go through challenging times and are often questioned, discredited or undermined.
Then, I will argue that the economic crisis from in 2007-2008 onwards has taken political dimensions which, in several cases share the characteristics of what Antonio Gramsci analysed as a “generalised crisis” or a “crisis of hegemony”.
Lastly, and taking into account the above analysis, I will present a few comments on the case of Cyprus, arguing that throughout the last decades, social elites in Cyprus, and particularly the Greek-Cypriot elites, did not work towards building social consent in a way that is necessary for reunifying a divided state and society on democratic terms.