The idea of ideological hegemony is used by marxist theorists as an alternative to the more conventional notion of political culture. It is based upon marx 's (1818-83) concept of ideology, which acknowledges that the ruling class is not only the ruling material force in society , but also its ruling intellectual force. This implies both that ideas, values and beliefs are class-specific, in the sense that they reflect the distinctive social existence of each class, and that the ideas of the ruling class enjoy a decisive advantage over those of other classes, thereby becoming the 'ruling ideas of the age' . Capitalist societies are thus dominated by bourgeois ideology. Gramsci,s prison notebooks ([1929-35] 1971) drew attention to the degree to which the class system is upheld not simply by unequal economic and political power , but also the ruling class's spiritual and cultural supremacy, understood as hegemony . Bourgeois values and beliefs pervade civil society ( the mass media, churches , youth movements, trade unions and so on ) , extending beyond formal learning and education and becoming the very common sense of the age. For socialism to be achieved , a ' battle of ideas' therefore has to be waged through which proletarian principles, values and theories displace, or at least challenge, bourgeois ones. The main criticisms of the idea of hegemony are that it overestimates the role of ideas in politics, amounting to a from of 'ideologism' , and that it underestimates the cultural diversity of capitalist societies that have , over time , become increasingly complex and pluralistic