Abstract

By capitalising on his interpretation of historical materialism in terms of “philosophy of praxis”, Gramsci elaborates an original theory of modernity – modernity is neither “humanistic” nor “nihilistic”, but is founded on the issue of the “state-nation”. The concept of “national-popular” is the most appropriate expression of the “democratic” connection of “reason” and “life”, i.e. of intellectuals and people. This connection takes place in a territory that constitutes the essence of modern state. Machiavelli, the Jacobins and Hegel are key-figures of the birth and development of the bourgeois hegemony. The “organic crisis” of this hegemony is caused by the split between the nationalism of politics and the cosmopolitanism of economy. Neither “americanism” nor the USSR can offer an effective solution to this crisis.