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Main contention : by "civil society", Gramsci means two diflerent things. First, "civil society" is the arena of the struggle for the political and cultural hegemony of a social group over society as a whole. It implies the existence of a social environment made up of so-called "private" bodies (media, churches, associations, parties, trade-unions, etc.) in which intellectuals take an active part. But "civil society" is also the field of economic activities ("determined market" and " homo oeconomicus"). This second meaning allows Gramsci to maintain that in the real world "civil society" and State are identical. The "economicist" illusion consists precisely in separating them. Only by taking into account the two meanings of "civil society" can one tackle the relationship between Gramsci and the liberal thought : one of descent and, at the same rime, a break between the two.