Why Hierarchy Won't Go Away: Understanding the Limits of 'Horizontalism'
9 Pages Posted: 26 May 2012
Date Written: May 25, 2012
Abstract
This short paper was produced as a Research Briefing for Leicester Business School in May 2012. It explores the rise of 'horizontalism' as a hegemonic world view and then discusses its limits, applying Gramsci's theory of the integral state. The paper suggests that the concept of a 'governance genome' maybe helpful for understanding how governing institutions embody multiple modes of coordination in many variable configurations, simultaneously hierarchy, market and network. It concludes that the resistance movements influenced by horizontalism should not feel threatened by hierarchy. The concept can be wrongly conflated with domination, and an element of hierarchy is the pre-condition of effective solidarity and democratic accountability.
Keywords: governance, genome, horizontalism, hierarchy, Gramsci, resistance
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