ABSTRACT
A different interpretation of the theoretical significance of Gramsci's elaboration of a theory of politics is that offered by Leonardo Paggi. Paggi suggests that this theory of politics is not limited to typical situation of the Western countries since it throws into a critical light a whole mode of economistic readings of historical materalism and therefore has important implications for Marxist theory in general. In fact, as Paggi points out for Buci-Glucksmann, with the concept of 'passive revolution' Gramsci effectively adds something new to Marx's Preface because he theorises an element which was absent from it: the study of the political form of transition. The identification of marxist philosophy and materialism is considered by Gramsci to be a form of economism and it was because of that Marxism lost its revolutionary character and was recuperated within the problematic of bourgeois philosophy. The category of 'passive revolution' is often used by Gramsci to qualify the most usual form of bourgeoisie hegemony.
