POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES

AND WHY THEY MATTER

 The role of ideas
• Ideology and political theory influence all action

• “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any

intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.
Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from
some academic scribbler of a few years back.”
Keynes
• Propaganda - 'window dressing’

• Political theory and political practice are inseparably linked

– ideas and ideologies - historical and social forces
• The function of ideology:
⁻ Structure political understanding and so set goals and inspire activism
⁻ Shape the nature of political systems
⁻ Act as a form of social cement
 Views of ideology 1
• The study of ideology vs. the study of ideologies

• What is ideology?
“Ideology is the most elusive concept in the whole of the social
sciences”- David McLellan
– a link between theory and practice
– struggle between and amongst political ideologies
• 'ideology' as a political weapon
• After the second half of the twentieth century - a neutral and apparently objective
concept of ideology widely employed
⁻ A political belief system
⁻ Political ideas that embody or articulate class or social interests
⁻ An abstract and highly systematic set of political ideas
 Views of ideology 2
• The origins of the term
• Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754–1836)
– first used in public in 1796
– idéologie referred to a new ‘science of ideas’
– idea-ology - to uncover the origins of ideas objectively
– the queen of the sciences - all forms of enquiry are based on ideas
• Napoleon
– transformed the term ideology
– The term lost its philosophical-apolitical connotation and became a
polemic catch word in the public debate.
– ideologue
 Marxist views of ideology

Marx
• ideology vs. science
– delusion and mystification, false consciousness
• ideology and the class system
– camera obscura
• ideology and power
– Ideology literally constitutes the ‘ruling’ ideas of the age.
• ideology as temporary
– Proletariat - ‘grave digger’ of capitalism
Post-Marx
• the endurance of capitalism
• Lenin and a socialist ‘ideology’
• Gramsci and capitalist hegemony
• Marcuse and consumerism in advanced industrial societies
– By manufacturing false needs and turning humans into voracious
 Non Marxist views of ideology

• Karl Mannheim (1893–1947)

– strove to rid ideology of its negative implications
– ideologies as thought systems
• express the interests of its dominant or ruling group
– Utopias - idealized representations of the future - serving the interests of
oppressed or subordinate groups.
– ‘socially unattached intelligentsia’
• they have no economic interests of their own
• inter-war period
– seeing fascism and communism as its prime examples
• Karl Popper
– Ideologies are ‘closed’ systems of thought, which, by claiming a monopoly of truth, refuse to
tolerate opposing ideas and rival beliefs.
• Michael Oakeshott - Ideology is equated with dogmatism
– as abstract systems of thought
Heywood’s definition of ideology

An ideology is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides

the basis for organized political action, whether this is intended
to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing system of power.
All ideologies therefore have the following features. They:

(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 a good
‘society’
(c) explain how political change can and should be brought about
– how to get from (a) to (b)
 Heywood’s definition of ideology

• Fusing understanding and commitment (a+b)

• ideology blurs the distinction between what ‘is’ and what ‘should be’.
– Descriptive + normative / facts + values
• Fusing thought and action (b+c)
• 'fundamental' and 'operative' levels of ideology
– At a fundamental level - political philosophies
– At an operative level - broad political movements
• idea-orientated and action-orientated
• fluid sets of ideas - shapelessness
– As liberal conservatism, socialist feminism
• ‘essentially contested concept’
• Michael Freeden - the morphology
– core, adjacent and peripheral concepts
 left and right
• date back to the French Revolution
– revolution and reaction

• belief in progress - defend the status quo

• different attitudes to economic organization
• attitudes to equality

• Horseshoe spectrum
 The evolution of ideology 1

• The transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism

– Political ideology arose
– liberalism, conservatism and socialism – 19. century
– middle class, aristocracy or nobility, and working class
• 1917 Russian Revolution, ideological warfare
• The twentieth century: the emergence of ‘new’ ideologies
– since around the 1960s
– Like feminism, green ideology, multiculturalism, islamism
• The emergence of post-industrialization and prosperity
• The ideological ramifications of the collapse of communism and
changing world order
• Global interconnectedness and cosmopolitan sensibilities
 The evolution of ideology 2

• From industrial to post-industrial societies

– Beck – from ‘first’ to ‘second’ modernity
– Giddens – from ‘simple’ to ‘reflexive’ modernity
– Baumann – from ‘solid’ to ‘liquid’ modernity
• Industrial societies
– Solidaristic
– Clear class divisions
• party system, interest-group competition and ideological debate

• Post-industrial societies
– more affluent societies
• ‘quality of life’ or ‘postmaterial’ issues
– Morality, political justice, personal fulfillment
• Gender equality, world peace, cultural recognition, environmental protection, animal rights
– Postindustrial societies tend to be characterized by growing individualization and
‘thinner’ and more fluid social bonds
• New social movements – women’s movement, the environmental or green movement and the peace
movement
 The evolution of ideology 3

• collapse of communism
– economic failings of central planning
– lost faith in ‘top-down’ state control
– Nationalism displaced Marxism–Leninism
– ‘clash of civilizations’
• Globalization
– connections between previously unconnected people
– homogenizing trends
• cosmopolitan sensibilities - idea of human rights
– Also, asymmetrical process – inequality and oppositional forces
• The ‘new’ ideologies
– A shift away from economics and towards culture
– A shift from social politics to identity politics
– A shift from universalism to particularism