This article aims at examining the originality of the political Marxist thought of the Brazilian philosopher Carlos Nelson Coutinho (1943-2012), who died recently. This author's most daring project on political theory was to approach the issue of hegemony as a contract. Such a project was suggested in a series of essays, and it is in the juxtaposition of Gramsci and Lukács's theoretical démarches. It is not a common approach: in the canonical tradition of political philosophy, hegemony and contract are related to different traditions which are usually seen as opposite ones - political realism and contractualism, respectively.
Carlos Nelson Coutinho; Hegemony; Amplified State; Gramsci; Marxism
