ABSTRACT

The conditions which legitimated Gramsci's model became, of course, in many respects, more applicable in the decades foIlowing his death, and many modern Asian states-one might think, for example, of China, or Singapore-provide situations aIl too close to that of Gramsci's starting point, Italy during the Fascist period.' Whether the terms of the analysis apply weIl to modern South Asia, particularly India, is another question, though not one I shaIl address directly here. For that matter, the new technologies of the Internet, satellite TV, and other fast and efficient international information channels would seem to be bringing about on aglobai sc ale an information regime which the Gramscian framework in its classic form fits rather poorly. Access to such technologies is open to only a small fraction of the Asian population at present, but even states such as China, Singapore or Indonesia are perhaps fighting a temporarily effective but ultimately doomed struggle against fuB incorporation into the new global regime.