Hegel, Marx and Gramsci on State and Civil Society

The purpose of this article is the comparative survey of three contrastive theoreticians- Hegel, Marx, and Gramsci- on state, civil society and their relationships. Hegel assumed the civil society as a combination of three systems; the economical, legal and cohesive (police and their related classes) which stand between the family and the state; which ultimately substitutes the state. Marx considers the civil society as the domain of work and everyday life, which is a totally economical and apolitical domain. Unlike Hegel and Marx, Gramci observes the civil society as a cultural sphere.The result of this theoretical comparative analysis shows that although these three contrasting theorists of philosophical principles assume a similar and common society as the base of their analysis, their conclusions on the society’s pattern structure differs with each other. Hegel substituted the three-dimensioned pattern of “family-civil society-state” with Aristotle’s classic two-dimensioned pattern of “family-city state”.Also Marx’s substructure pattern (on civil society) and superstructure (state) changed for Gramsci to the substructure (economic) and superstructure (civil society = nongovernmental organs + state). Gramci’s state is a combinative state compiled of the satisfaction of “mastery + power” and therefore it is both the substructure and the superstructure.