Ideology

a. Offer an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a

world-view
b. Advance a model of a desired future, a vision of the good society
c. Explain how political change can and should be brought about.
It evaluates alternatives to the status quo and prescribes a preferred or desired
social order.

It specifies
 Function of Political Ideology
It offers an analysis of the status quo
by examining what works and what
does not work, as well as other
various issues and problems that the
state and the broader society are
confronted with.
Different Ideologies and their
Perspective on the State
 Different Ideologies and their Perspective on the State

Anarchism
• Rejects the state outright, believing it to be an unnecessary
evil

• The sovereign, compulsory, and coercive authority of the

stateis seen as a nothing less than legalized oppression
operating in the interests of the powerful, propertied, and
privileged

• As a state is inherently evil and oppressive, all state have

the same essential character.
 Socialism
•Has contrasting views of the state

•Marxist have stressed the link between the state and

the class system, seeing it either as an instrument of
class rule or as a means of ameliorating class
tensions

•Other socialist, however , regard the state as an

embodiment of the common good and thus approve of
interventionism in their its social- democratic or state
collectivist form.
Liberalism
• Sees the state as neutral arbiter among
competing interest and groups in society,
avital guarantee of social order
• While classical liberals treat the state as
a necessary evil and extol the virtues of a
minimal or nightwatchman state, modern
liberals recognize the state’s positive role
in widening freedom and promoting equal
opportunities.
Conservatism

• Links the state to the need to provide authority and

discipline and to protect society from chaos and
disorder, hence, their traditional preference for a
strong state.

• However, whereas traditional conservatives support a

pragmatic balance between the state civil society,
neoliberals have called for state to be “rolled back” as
it threatens economic prosperity and is driven,
essentially by, bureaucratic self- interest.
•
Fascism

Particularly in the Italian tradition, sees the

state as a supreme ethical ideal, reflecting the
undifferentiated interest of the national
community, hence their belief in
totalitarianism.

The Nazis, however, saw the state more as a

vessel that contains, or tool that serves that
contains, or tool that serves, the race or