IMPACT OF IDEOLOGY ON PUBLIC

POLICY: CHANGES IN POLITICAL

THINKING
• IDEOLOGY - The concept of ideology
originated in France during the late 18th
century, when some thinkers and writers
attacked the Divine Right of the French king to
rule and questioned orthodox religious
traditions associated with the Roman Catholic
Church.
- A system of beliefs that aspires to
explain and to change the world.
 - A systematic set of principles that link perceptions of the
world to explicit moral values. It does not only interpret the
meaning of events but also posits/hypothesize the need for
change in the existing situation.

- A general, abstract, systematic set of principles rather

than a set of specific, concrete and random beliefs. Persons
who think in terms of ideology perceived concrete events in
the light of abstract ideas such as equality for the
downtrodden/oppressed/exploited or freedom for the
enterprising. Political activists and people seeking
fundamental changes in the existing situation will often voice
their ideas in an ideological style.
 SURVEY OF SOME IDEOLOGIES

• Nationalism – includes love of country

(Patriotism) but is stronger and includes
demands for action usually intended to
strengthen the country. This is the most basic
meaning of nationalism.
• Democratic Capitalism – is an economic system
traditionally characterized by: private ownership;
no limitation in the accumulation of property;
and the absence of governmental intervention in
the economy – the free market system -.

• Today however, it is now characterized by: most

property held privately; little actual limit on the
accumulation of property; government regulation
of the economy – a modified free market system;
and a growing welfare system.
• Democratic Socialism – an ideology
characterized by: much property held by the
public through the democratically elected
government, including all the major
industries, utilities and transportation; a limit
on the accumulation of private property;
governmental regulation of the economy; and
an extensive welfare system.
• Democratic Conservatism – is characterized
as: Resistance to change; reverence for
tradition and a distrust of human reason;
rejection of the use of the government to
improve the human condition – ambivalence
regarding governmental activity; favoring
individual freedom but willing to limit
freedom; and antiegalitarian – distrust of
human nature.
• Liberalism – is an ideology characterized by:
having a tendency to favor change; possessing
faith in human nature; being willing to use
government to improve the human condition;
favoring individual freedom; and being
ambivalent regarding human nature.
• Communism – Characterized by: distribution of
income according to the need, no longer according
to the labor performed; no classes; the state withers
away; very high productivity so that there is plenty
for all; high socialist consciousness- people work
without incentives; more equality but not absolute
equality; no money; a command economy; the
economy managed by a free and equal association of
producers; the differences of between occupations
disappear, so that there is no social distinction
between town and country; each person does about
as much physical as intellectual labor; the system is
worldwide;
Fascism or National Socialism is Characterized
by:

• Irrationalism – Entails the rejection of the

approach or application of reason and science
in solving social problems and use myth,
appeal to the emotions and hate as tools of
manipulation. The basic assumption is that
humans are not rational beings, they need not
and cannot be reasoned out, they can only be
led and manipulated.
• Social Darwinism – Culled from Charles
Darwin’s theory that life evolved through a
struggle for survival between the species. But
they saw it in a modified way, in other words,
rather than seeing a struggle for survival
between the species, they saw it as a struggle
within the species.
• Nationalism – Takes a different meaning with
that of the basic. For the fascist, individuals
are first and foremost members of the nation
to which they give all of their loyalty,
dedication and love. The individual does not
exist apart from his existence in the nation.
Almost no such thing as individual in fascist
ideology, individual and nation are
inseparable.
• The State – Regards a state as an “organic” or
“corporate state”. This means that society,
represented by the state, is a separate entity
having a life or existence at once different
from, and more than, the life of any individual
within that society. This also means that the
life of the individual is less important than the
life of the society.
• The leadership (Fuhrer) principle – State is run
on a leadership or “Fuhrer” principle, which
means that each subordinate owes absolute
obedience to his or her immediate supervisor,
with everyone ultimately subordinate to the
absolute leader, the Fuhrer.
• Rascism – Right of the stronger race to govern.
Inferior races will be eliminated, not merely
dominated. The only situation in which the
dominated races could continue to exist would
be if it were felt that certain menial tasks
required them.

• Anticommunism – Aspect of fascism that

made it acceptable to many.
IMPACT/INFLUENCE OF IDEOLOGY ON
PUBLIC POLICY
• has an important role in policy-making, seeks
to explain the key problems facing a society,
and to interpret key events;
• Provides meaning for life and history;
• Shapes the purposes and priorities of political
action;
• Operates as a perceptual screen that accepts
some alternative but filters out others;
• Helps those person holding power to gain
acceptance for their policies;
• Mobilizes human efforts behind a cause, such as
social equality or freedom from foreign
domination and internal exploitation.
• Limits the set of behaviors that are compatible
with a given ideology
• A policy-maker that is known to stand for some
ideology it is difficult to change behavior radically
or to implement a policy that is compatible with
this ideology without losing credibility and
jeopardizing reelection
• Occurrence of ideology tends to make
behavior of policy makers more predictable
• Supports rule based behavior and tend to limit
discretion
• Serves as anchor for implicit rules that cannot
easily be violated and make deviations from
such rules more easy to detect
• Can help policy makers in gaining reputation
and implementing policies that are credible
not only in the short run
• Provides meaning and attaches value to socio-
economic reality
• Explains and rationalize
• By providing a definition of system reality, it
focuses perception, directs analysis and biases
interpretations
• By providing a framework of thought and
behavior, ideology serves to promote social
cohesion and group identity
• Serves as an instrument of social control and
rule: an instrument for standardizing and
routinizing attitudinal and behavioral
responses, a mode of conflict generation and
resolution, and a weapon in the struggle for
power
• Serves as a self-binding device that allow
policy-makers to credibly commit to some
rules or programmes by limiting the set of
acceptable behavior or choice
• Helps to make conditions more lasting and stable and
tend to reduce uncertainty about future policy-making

• In democracies, ideologies are rational devices of self

commitment that increase credibility of policy-makers
and tend to reduce problems of time-inconsistency and
discretion in policy making

• Change in leadership results in change of policies

depending on the ideology of the leader (mine)