ABSTRACT
Narratives and myths In many authoritarian states, governing elites have been able to maintain hegemony by creatively manufacturing ideological consent rather than resorting too frequently to coercive measures. Consent is effectively maintained when a set of ideas and values which constitute a coherent worldview take on the status of ‘commonsense’ reality. As this version of reality becomes universalised, alternative realities are submerged and dismissed as unviable or unrealistic. In Gramscian terms, this phenomenon is referred to as ideological hegemony (Simon, 1991; Gramsci, 1971; Lears, 1985).
