Our intention is to present a re-reading of the problem of the State in Gramsci's thought, in the wake of Massimo Salvadori and Christine Buci-Gluksmann now-classic analyses, guided by our conviction that Gramsci's supposedly perfect alignment to the Marxist perspective on the extinction of the State - sustained almost unanimously by contemporary Gramscian criticism - should be re-evaluated and even revoked. We work exegetically with Gramsci's text, using tools of lexical analysis and paying particular attention to the presence of the expression "state life" of which he makes ample use in his in his Quaderni del carcere. Several elements capable of clarifying the Gramscian conception of the State flow from this expression. They are useful in our reconsideration of his complex reflections on the "historic" problem of democracy, with its fragile balance between critique, renovation and exclusion of the traditional forms of modern democracy.
Antonio Gramsci; Marxism; philosophy; politics; civil society; the State