M2 Regimes of ideological hegemony

Topic

Regimes of ideological hegemony are three possible states of the ideological field: hegemony, competitive pluralism and polarization. While the degree of fragmentation of the narrative space remains low, the ideological field remains hegemonic, with a dominant official narrative that faces no significant competition.

The degree of fragmentation of the narrative space—the same effective number of competing narratives with a significant audience that already measures the fragmentation of the narrative space—is the variable that triggers the passage from one regime of ideological hegemony to another: when this degree of fragmentation of the narrative space begins to rise from zero, the ideological field moves from hegemony toward competitive pluralism, where several narratives coexist without any one completely dominating.

Further fragmentation of the narrative space pushes the regime of ideological hegemony beyond competitive pluralism and towards polarization: when the effective number of competing narratives with a significant audience is concentrated around two opposing poles instead of remaining dispersed among several, the ideological field leaves competitive pluralism and enters polarization.

This is the same fragmentation of the narrative space that is already followed as an indicator within Culture, fueled in turn by the legitimacy gap: the more the legitimacy gap grows, the more fragmentation of the narrative space appears, and the more the regime of ideological hegemony moves from hegemony, through competitive pluralism, to polarization. Monitoring the degree of fragmentation of the narrative space is, therefore, the way to anticipate towards which of the three regimes of ideological hegemony the ideological field moves within Culture, the theme that the worldview track directly drags.

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