Theoria, Issue 163, Vol. 67, No. 2 (June 2020): 52-81 © Berghahn Books doi:10.3167/th.2020.6716303฀•฀ISSN฀0040-5817฀(Print)฀•฀ISSN฀1558-5816฀(Online) Hegemony, Crisis and Bonapartism in Italy, Spain and France Francesco Maria Scanni and Francesco Compolongo Abstract: The 2008 crisis and economic transformations (globalisation and financialisation) fuelled significant political phenomena, such as a deep distrust of politics, electoral volatility and the decline of bipolarity and/or bipartisanship in the face of growing outsider party affirmation. In this context, the dialectical model of the Gramscian ‘social totality’ provides an analytical tool capable of analysing those ‘transition’ phases characterised by a fracturing ‘dominant historical bloc’, in itself a pre- cursor to an organic crisis of traditional political parties’ separation of social classes. Keywords: Bonapartism, crisis, Gramsci, hegemony, new parties, pas- sive revolution Gramscian thought is deeply embedded in the historical context and socio-economic reality of its time, while also being easily transposed or translated into political terms, as demonstrated by its interpreta- tion of Marxism in terms of a ‘philosophy of praxis’. It can therefore be rediscovered and reinterpreted in light of changes in society and in development models, allowing us to decipher the intricate pro- cesses of our times and the social and political responses enacted in turn. Gramscian theory can therefore become a useful method for comprehending and ‘re-ordering’ a reality that often appears dif- ficult to grasp in its complexity. This article uses the lens of Grams- cian theory to interrogate the effects of the 2008 economic crisis (and its associated crises of traditional political models, praxes and interpretative schema) on the political system. Traditional subjects,