Abstract

To understand the importance of Gramsci as a theorist of the Worker’s Councils, it is appropriate to compare him with the experience of the Soviets in Russia and with other thinkers who in Europe reflected on this peculiar form of democracy, from Luxemburg to Lukács and Korsch, from Pannekoek to Sylvia Pankhurst. The heart of the Gramscian council model is the overcoming of the split between economics and politics advocated by Marx, the councils as an expression of a homogeneous social group. After the defeat of the Councils in the «West», Gramsci accepted the leading role of the party, without ever denying the Councils.