POLITICAL

IDEOLOGIES
IDEOLOGY DEFINED

• Ideology is a set of basic beliefs about life, culture,

government, and society.
• Politics – Process by which people decided which
members of society get certain benefits or privileges
and which do not
–Struggle for power or influence within institutions
or organizations (govt is an institution)
•A political ideology provides the
framework for looking at government and
public policy.
–Closely linked set of beliefs about politics
POLITICAL IDEOLOGY:
1. A coherent set of ideas of on how people should live together.
2. A plan of action for applying these ideas.

Four key functions

• Explanatory(How the world Works [Empirical])
• Evaluative (Deciding whether things are good or bad
[Normative])
• Orientation (Supplies the holder with a sense of identity)
• Programmatic (What to do and how to do it)
FOUNDATIONAL DISPUTES
• Human Nature
‘Naturally’ good, cooperative, even perfectible
Inherently flawed, evil, dangerous

• Individual versus Collective

A normative choice with empirical implications

• Conception of Freedom
Freedom as an ‘essentially contested concept’
‘Freedom from…’ versus ‘Freedom to…’
POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
• LIBERALISM
• CONSERVATISM
• SOCIALISM
• POST-IDEOLOGICAL POLITICS
• SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
• COMMUNISM
• FASCISM
• FEMINISM
LIBERALISM

• Desire for a free, open, tolerant society.

• Humans as rational and able to Humans as rational and
able to recognize and promote self recognize and promote
self-interest
• Liberty and equality of opportunity
• Classical Liberalism versus Modern Classical Liberalism
versus Modern (Welfare) Liberalism
LIBERALISM’S ‘FOUR FUNCTIONS’

• Explanatory: Social conditions are the result of

individual choices and actions.

• Evaluative: Societies work best when individuals

are free to do as they wish without harming or
violating rights of others.
LIBERALISM’S ‘FOUR FUNCTIONS’

• Orientation: Rational, self Rational, self-interested

individuals (and hence equal).

• Programmatic: Programs for promoting individual

liberty (classical) and opportunity (welfare).
CONSERVATISM
• Human imperfection
• Focused on conserving existing social Focused on
conserving existing social order
• Custom and tradition as ‘latent Custom and tradition as
‘latent wisdom’
• Organic view of society
• Acceptance of inequality
• Freedom and order
CONSERVATISM’S ‘FOUR FUNCTIONS’
• Explanatory: Social conditions are the result of
human imperfections (intellectual and moral)
• Evaluative: Success is a question of social order
and harmony.
• Orientation: Each of us is part of a greater whole,
and we should act with interest of society (not just
self) in mind.
• Programmatic: Slow and cautious change.
SOCIALISM

• Flaws of Liberalism
–Individualism and Social Class
–Economics and Political Power

• Economic Equality as ‘True Equality’

• Economic Planning and the Welfare State
SOCIALISM’S ‘FOUR FUNCTIONS’
• Explanatory: Social conditions can only be reference to
economic and understood by reference to economic and class
relations.
• Evaluative: Sharpness of economic divisions (exploitive?)
determines health of society.
• Orientation: People should think of themselves in terms of
their economic (class) position.
• Programmatic: Policies must be put into place to advance
economic equality (which is a prerequisite for ‘true’ political
equality)
COMMUNISM

• By Carl Marx
• Society without different social classes in which the
methods of production are owned and controlled by
all its members and everyone works as much as they
can receives what they need.
COMMUNISM
• Explanatory: Social conditions determined by economic
and class relations.
• Evaluative: Sharpness of class divisions determines ‘stage
of development’
• Orientation: People should think of themselves in terms
of their class position.
• Programmatic: Policies must be put into place to
advance movement toward communist revolution and
‘classless society’
FASCISM
• Benito Mussolini
• Organic view of society (society over individual)
• Irrationalism
• Rejection of Democracy
• Militarism
• All values arise from the state and the individual has no right
• Hypernationalism/Racism
–Nation/People as determining identity
FASCISM’S ‘FOUR FUNCTIONS’

• Explanatory: Problems from ‘enemies of the nation or

people’ (scapegoats)
• Evaluative: Strength and unity of the nation or people.
• Orientation: Define yourself as part of nation/people
(not as individual)
• Programmatic: Establish fascist elite in uncontested
power (Believe, obey, fight).
FEMINISM

• Women experienced a poor state in the society

• Focus on the position of women in the society
• Gender equality in the political, economic and social
spheres
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

• Balance between market and state

• It stresses welfare measures but not state
ownership
POST-IDEOLOGICAL POLITICS
• This implies that political ideology is less important in politics
today
–This can be seen because:
There are less clear ideological differences between
political parties
Pressure group politics often does not fit into traditional
ideologies
Many political groups are concerned with single issues
rather than a comprehensive ideology