International institutions and the Gramscian legacy: Its modification, expansion, and reaffirmation

This article modifies, so as to confirm the value of, the Gramscian legacy for analyzing international institutions. The legacy has performed yeoman's service as a paradigm for national governments, generally considered to be the masters of international institutions, and it has correctly viewed these institutions as the legitimizers of the existing hegemony. What the legacy has not done, and what this article does, is to recognize the other functions of these institutions and to allow that they can serve the opposite function of de-legitimizing the ongoing hegemony. These deficiencies are traced to the works of Gramsci himself and to the professional work of Robert W. Cox, who is given the credit of first applying the legacy to international institutions. The major purpose of the article, however, is to correct these deficiences. It also insists on presenting the legitimizing function as a dynamic process, a dialectic between institution and audience, and on not treating it as a static concept as is now the case.