Hegemony is "the process of moral, philosophical, and political leadership that a social group attains only with the active consent of other important social groups" (Artz). If the leadership can align the subordinates" interests with their own, people willingly adhere to the their bidding. Leadership must give a little in order to retain their power. They agree to some demands and negotiate others so that the groups feel they have some control. Hegemony is never stable. It is constantly changing as different groups contest and challenge the leadership. It is built by continually renegotiating with subordinates in the three major areas in which they benefit: material, political, and cultural. When content, people actively give their consent. If a group feels they are no longer benefiting, they can challenge leadership and withdraw their consent. Blacks are an excellent example of this. New alliances were made between the blacks and whites challenging the status quo during the Civil Rights movement. New ideologies gave way to new practices and new demands. Leadership had to renegotiate in order to win back the subordinates" consent. They even went a step further to ensure consent by embracing outspoken blacks into the system as leading representatives. The blacks again gave their consent, thinking their issues had been resolved only to find they had been subtly shepherded back into the fold. Time will continue to bring new demands and new negotiations. If not, hegemony loses.
Hegemony is maintained through today's media, which has become our social communicator, telling us how to behave, what to think, giving us our values, and explaining our practices. We do what we know and so we practice what we see and hear in our daily lives. We"re not even conscious of the messages any more because they have become so ingrained that they are "natural" to us. Our norms and practices are perpetuated by the media, which in turn supports hegemony.
