Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist thinker in the early 20th century. He developed the concept of hegemony to describe how the dominant social class maintains control through political, economic, and ideological means. This involves projecting their worldview as common sense to gain willing consent from subordinate classes. However, Gramsci noted that common sense is not static and subordinate classes will challenge hegemony based on their social experiences, making ideology a site of constant struggle between classes. He rejected the idea that the economy alone determines society and emphasized the independence of ideology and importance of struggle over ideas.