Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics – Region: USA, grade: 2, 0, Dublin Institute of Technology, course: Int. Political Economy, language: English, abstract: When talking about hegemony, mentioning the name Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) is inevitable. Gramsci was an Italian theorist who had a significant influence on the definition of the term as we know it today. Although one might think that especially the western society is mostly governed by democratic powers, adherers of hegemonial assumption have a slightly different opinion. This phenomenon will be examined in the following essay written by Michael Krause, Erasmus student at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Emphasis will lay on today’s forces in different fields of society and the question if one or several of these forces can be described as hegemon(s).