Gramsci, Language and Pluralism

Abstract

The question of Gramsci’s views on pluralism and liberal democracy received consistent attention in the second half of the 1970s, and again in the 1990s. Gramsci’s stance on the plurality of political programs and initiatives, as guaranteed by liberal-democratic institutions, became a main focus of attention in 1976–7, when the Italian Communist Party (PCI) extended its electoral support, while gradually breaking its links with the USSR. At this time some intellectuals close to the PSI (within which fiercely anti-communist tendencies were beginning to prevail) almost completely overturned the interpretation of Gramsci that other socialists had previously put forward.