Abstract

My contribution intends to confront Gramsci’s reflections on the new forms of capitalism and subjectivization as formulated in Americanism and Fordism with Benjamin’s notion of “second technique”. Both Gramsci and Benjamin understood the development of capitalist modes of production as a field of tension between the proletarian revolution and a new form of capitalist art of governing. This art of government, which includes alternatives within the capitalist system, corresponds with Gramsci’s “passive revolution” in politics and with Benjamin’s description of Baudelaire as “his own impresario” on the level of forms of life. With their analyses of capitalism, both philosophers announced some characteristics of neoliberalism.