An ideology is a set of
beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely
epistemic
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied primarily to
economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...
,
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
, or
religious theories and policies, in a tradition going back to
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Friedrich Engels, more recent use the term as mainly condemnatory.
The term was coined by
Antoine Destutt de Tracy, a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
Enlightenment
Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to:
Age of Enlightenment
* Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
aristocrat and
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, who conceived it in 1796 as the "science of ideas" to develop a rational system of ideas to oppose the irrational impulses of the mob. In
political science, the term is used in a
descriptive sense to refer to
political belief systems.
Etymology and history
The term ''ideology'' originates from
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
''idéologie'', itself deriving from combining (; close to the
Lockean sense of
''idea'') and ''
-logíā'' ().
The term ideology, and the system of ideas associated with it, was coined in 1796 by
Antoine Destutt de Tracy while in prison pending trial during the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
, where he read the works of
Locke
Locke may refer to:
People
*John Locke, English philosopher
*Locke (given name)
*Locke (surname), information about the surname and list of people
Places in the United States
*Locke, California, a town in Sacramento County
*Locke, Indiana
*Locke, ...
and
Condillac. Hoping to form a secure foundation for the
moral
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...
and
political sciences, Tracy devised the term for a "science of ideas," basing such upon two things:
# the sensations that people experience as they interact with the material world; and
# the ideas that form in their minds due to those sensations.
He conceived ''ideology'' as a
liberal philosophy that would defend
individual liberty,
property,
free markets, and constitutional limits on state power. He argues that, among these aspects, ideology is the most generic term because the 'science of ideas' also contains the study of their expression and deduction.
The
coup that overthrew
Maximilien Robespierre allowed Tracy to pursue his work.
Tracy reacted to the terroristic phase of the revolution (during the
Napoleonic regime) by trying to work out a
rational system of ideas to oppose the
irrational mob impulses that had nearly destroyed him.
A subsequent early source for the near-original meaning of ''ideology'' is
Hippolyte Taine's work on the
Ancien Régime, ''Origins of Contemporary France'' I. He describes ''ideology'' as rather like teaching philosophy via the
Socratic method, though without extending the vocabulary beyond what the general reader already possessed, and without the examples from observation that practical science would require. Taine identifies it not just with Destutt De Tracy, but also with his
milieu, and includes
Condillac as one of its precursors.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
came to view ''ideology'' as a term of abuse, which he often hurled against his liberal foes in Tracy's
Institutional. According to
Karl Mannheim's historical reconstruction of the shifts in the meaning of ''ideology'', the modern meaning of the word was born when Napoleon used it to describe his opponents as "the ideologues." Tracy's major book, ''The Elements of Ideology'', was soon translated into the major languages of Europe.
In the century following Tracy, the term ''ideology'' moved back and forth between positive and negative connotations. During this next generation, when
post-Napoleonic governments adopted a
reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
stance, influenced the Italian, Spanish and Russian thinkers who had begun to describe themselves as "liberals" and who attempted to reignite revolutionary activity in the early 1820s, including the
Carlist
Carlism ( eu, Karlismo; ca, Carlisme; ; ) is a Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty – one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855) – o ...
rebels in Spain; the
Carbonari societies in France and Italy; and the
Decembrists in Russia.
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
adopted Napoleon's negative sense of the term, using it in his writings, in which he once described Tracy as a (a 'fish-blooded bourgeois doctrinaire').
The term has since
dropped some of its pejorative sting, and has become a neutral term in the analysis of differing
political opinions
Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.
Overview
Every person attempts to have a cognitive proficiency by ...
and views of
social groups. While Marx situated the term within
class struggle and domination, others believed it was a necessary part of
institutional functioning and
social integration.
Definitions and analysis
There are many different kinds of ideologies, including
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
,
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
,
epistemological
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
, and
ethical.
Recent analysis tends to posit that ''ideology'' is a 'coherent system of ideas' that rely on a few basic assumptions about reality that may or may not have any factual basis. Through this system, ideas become coherent, repeated patterns through the
subjective
Subjective may refer to:
* Subjectivity, a subject's personal perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or discovery, as opposed to those made from an independent, objective, point of view
** Subjective experience, the subjective quality of conscio ...
ongoing choices that people make. These ideas serve as the seed around which further
thought
In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, a ...
grows. The belief in an ideology can range from passive acceptance up to fervent advocacy. According to most recent analysis, ideologies are neither necessarily right nor wrong.
Definitions, such as by
Manfred Steger and
Paul James emphasize both the issue of patterning and
contingent claims to truth:
Studies of the concept of ideology itself (rather than specific ideologies) have been carried out under the name of ''
systematic ideology'' in the works of George Walford and Harold Walsby, who attempt to explore the relationships between ideology and
social systems.
David W. Minar describes six different ways the word ''ideology'' has been used:
# As a collection of certain ideas with certain kinds of ''content'', usually normative;
# As the ''form or
internal logical structure'' that ideas have within a set;
# By the role ideas play in ''
human-social interaction'';
# By the role ideas play in the ''
structure of an organization'';
# As meaning, whose purpose is ''
persuasion
Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for Social influence, influence. Persuasion can influence a person's Belief, beliefs, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, Intention, intentions, Motivation, motivations, or Behavior, behaviours.
...
''; and
# As the ''locus'' of
social interaction
A social relation or also described as a social interaction or social experience is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more individuals ...
.
For Willard A. Mullins, an ''ideology'' should be contrasted with the related (but different) issues of ''
utopia'' and ''historical myth''. An ideology is composed of four basic characteristics:
# it must have power over
cognition;
# it must be capable of guiding one's
evaluations;
# it must provide guidance towards action; and
# it must be logically coherent.
Terry Eagleton outlines (more or less in no particular order) some definitions of ideology:
[Eagleton, Terry. 1991. ]
Ideology: An Introduction
''. Verso. .
# The process of production of meanings, signs and values in social life
# A body of ideas characteristic of a particular social group or class
# Ideas that help legitimate a dominant political power
# False ideas that help legitimate a dominant political power
# Systematically distorted communication
# Ideas that offer a position for a subject
# Forms of thought motivated by social interests
# Identity thinking
# Socially necessary illusion
# The conjuncture of
discourse
Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. ...
and power
# The medium in which conscious social actors make sense of their world
# Action-oriented sets of beliefs
# The confusion of linguistic and phenomenal reality
#
Semiotic
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
closure
# The indispensable medium in which individuals live out their relations to a
social structure
# The process that converts social life to a natural reality
German philosopher Christian Duncker called for a "critical reflection of the ideology concept." In his work, he strove to bring the concept of ideology into the foreground, as well as the closely connected concerns of
epistemology and history, defining ''ideology'' in terms of a system of presentations that explicitly or implicitly claim to
absolute truth.
Marxist interpretation
Marx's analysis sees ideology as a system of falsehoods deliberately promulgated by the ruling class as a means of self-perpetuation.
In the
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
base and superstructure model of society, ''base'' denotes the
relations of production
Relations of production (german: Produktionsverhältnisse, links=no) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their theory of historical materialism and in ''Das Kapital''. It is first explicitly used in Marx's publish ...
and
modes of production, and ''superstructure'' denotes the
dominant ideology (i.e. religious, legal, political systems). The economic base of production determines the political superstructure of a society. Ruling
class-interests determine the superstructure and the nature of the justifying ideology—actions feasible because the
ruling class control the
means of production
The means of production is a term which describes land, Work (human activity), labor and capital (economics), capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or Service (economics), services); however, the term can also refer to anyth ...
. For example, in a
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structu ...
mode of production, religious ideology is the most prominent aspect of the superstructure, while in capitalist formations, ideologies such as
liberalism and
social democracy
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to prom ...
dominate. Hence the great importance of ideology justifies a society and politically confuses the alienated groups of society via
false consciousness.
Some explanations have been presented.
Antonio Gramsci uses
cultural hegemony to explain why the
working-class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
have a false ideological conception of what their best interests are. Marx argued that "The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production."
The Marxist formulation of "ideology as an instrument of social reproduction" is conceptually important to the
sociology of knowledge, viz.
Karl Mannheim,
Daniel Bell, and
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere.
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...
et al. Moreover, Mannheim has developed, and progressed, from the "total" but "special" Marxist conception of ideology to a "general" and "total" ideological conception acknowledging that all ideology (including
Marxism) resulted from social life, an idea developed by the
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...
and the earlier
Frankfurt School added to the "general theory" of ideology a psychoanalytic insight that ideologies do not include only conscious, but also
unconscious ideas.
Ideological state apparatuses (Althusser)
French Marxist philosopher
Louis Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser ...
proposed that ideology is "the imagined existence (or idea) of things as it relates to the real conditions of existence" and makes use of a lacunar discourse. A number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is ''not'' told (but is suggested).
For example, the statement "All are
equal before the law
Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, legal equality, or legal egalitarianism, is the principle that all people must be equally protected by the law. The principle requires a systematic r ...
," which is a theoretical groundwork of current legal systems, suggests that all people may be of equal worth or have equal opportunities. This is not true, for the concept of
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...
and power over the
means of production
The means of production is a term which describes land, Work (human activity), labor and capital (economics), capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or Service (economics), services); however, the term can also refer to anyth ...
results in some people being able to own more (''much'' more) than others. This power disparity contradicts the claim that all share both practical worth and future opportunity equally; for example, the rich can afford better legal representation, which practically privileges them before the law.
Althusser also proffered the concept of the
ideological state apparatus
"Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" (French: "Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d'État (Notes pour une recherche)") is an essay by the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. First published in 197 ...
to explain his theory of ideology. His first thesis was "''ideology has no history''": while individual ideolog''ies'' have histories, interleaved with the general class struggle of society, the general form of ideology is external to history.
For Althusser, beliefs and ideas are the products of social practices, not the reverse. His thesis that "''ideas are material''" is illustrated by the "scandalous advice" of
Pascal
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...
toward unbelievers: "Kneel and pray, and then you will believe." What is ultimately ideological for Althusser are not the subjective beliefs held in the conscious "minds" of human individuals, but rather discourses that produce these beliefs, the material institutions and rituals that individuals take part in without submitting it to conscious examination and so much more
critical thinking.
Ideology and the Commodity (Debord)
The French
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
theorist
Guy Debord
Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...
, founding member of the
Situationist International
The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
, argued that when the commodity becomes the "essential category" of society, i.e. when the process of
commodification has been consummated to its fullest extent, the image of society propagated by the commodity (as it describes all of life as constituted by notions and objects deriving their value only as commodities tradeable in terms of
exchange value
In political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value (German: ''Tauschwert'') refers to one of the four major attributes of a commodity, i.e., an item or service produced for, and sold on the market, the other three attributes be ...
), colonizes all of life and reduces society to a mere representation,
The Society of the Spectacle.
Unifying agents (Hoffer)
The American philosopher
Eric Hoffer identified several elements that unify followers of a particular ideology:
[ Hoffer, Eric. 1951. '' The True Believer''. Harper Perennial. p. 91, '' et seq.'']
# Hatred: "Mass movements can rise and spread without a
God, but never without belief in a
devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...
."
The "ideal devil" is a foreigner.
# Imitation: "The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others…the more we mistrust our judgment and luck, the more are we ready to follow the example of others."
# Persuasion: The proselytizing zeal of propagandists derives from "a passionate search for something not yet found more than a desire to bestow something we already have."
# Coercion: Hoffer asserts that violence and
fanaticism are interdependent. People forcibly converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
ic or
communist beliefs become as fanatical as those who did the forcing. "It takes fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice."
# Leadership: Without the leader, there is no movement. Often the leader must wait long in the wings until the time is ripe. He calls for sacrifices in the present, to justify his vision of a breathtaking future. The skills required include: audacity, brazenness, iron will, fanatical conviction; passionate hatred, cunning, a delight in symbols; ability to inspire blind faith in the masses; and a group of able
lieutenants.
Charlatanism is indispensable, and the leader often imitates both friend and foe, "a single-minded fashioning after a model." He will not lead followers towards the "
promised land," but only "away from their unwanted selves."
# Action: Original thoughts are suppressed, and unity encouraged, if the masses are kept occupied through great projects, marches, exploration and industry.
# Suspicion: "There is prying and spying, tense watching and a tense awareness of being watched." This pathological mistrust goes unchallenged and encourages
conformity, not
dissent.
Ronald Inglehart
Ronald Inglehart of the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
is author of the
World Values Survey, which, since 1980, has mapped social attitudes in 100 countries representing 90% of global population. Results indicate that where people live is likely to closely correlate with their ideological beliefs. In much of Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, people prefer traditional beliefs and are less tolerant of liberal values.
Protestant Europe
Christianity is the largest religion in Europe. Christianity has been practiced in Europe since the first century, and a number of the Pauline Epistles were addressed to Christians living in Greece, as well as other parts of the Roman Empire.
...
, at the other extreme, adheres more to secular beliefs and liberal values. Alone among high-income countries, the United States is exceptional in its adherence to traditional beliefs, in this case Christianity.
Political ideologies
In
social studies, a political ideology is a certain ethical set of
ideals
Ideal may refer to:
Philosophy
* Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals
* Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato
Mathematics
* Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considered ...
,
principle
A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a Legal rule, rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, suc ...
s,
doctrine
Doctrine (from la, Wikt:doctrina, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification (law), codification of beliefs or a body of teacher, teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given ...
s,
myths, or
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
s of a
social movement
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
,
institution
Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...
,
class, or large group that explains how
society
A society is a Social group, group of individuals involved in persistent Social relation, social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same Politics, political authority an ...
should work, offering some political and cultural blueprint for a certain
social order. Political ideologies are concerned with many different aspects of a society, including (for example): the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...
,
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...
,
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
,
labor law,
criminal law, the
justice system, the provision of
social security and
social welfare,
trade, the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
,
minors,
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
,
race, use of the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
,
patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
, and
established religion
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a ...
.
Political ideologies have two dimensions:
# Goals: how society should work; and
# Methods: the most appropriate ways to achieve the ideal arrangement.
There are many proposed methods for the classification of political ideologies, each of these different methods generate a specific
political spectrum. Ideologies also identify themselves by their position on the spectrum (e.g. the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
, the
center or the
right), though precision in this respect can often become controversial. Finally, ideologies can be distinguished from
political strategies (e.g.,
populism
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
) and from
single issues that a party may be built around (e.g.
legalization of marijuana). Philosopher
Michael Oakeshott defines such ideology as "the formalized abridgment of the supposed sub-stratum of the rational truth contained in the tradition." Moreover, Charles Blattberg offers an account that distinguishes political ''ideologies'' from
political ''philosophies''.
A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate
power and to what ends power should be used. Some parties follow a certain ideology very closely, while others may take broad inspiration from a group of related ideologies without specifically embracing any one of them. Each political ideology contains certain ideas on what it considers the best
form of government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
(e.g.,
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
,
demagogy,
theocracy,
caliphate etc.), scope of government (e.g.
authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vo ...
,
libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
,
federalism
Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...
, etc.) and the best
economic system
An economic system, or economic order, is a system of Production (economics), production, resource allocation and Distribution (economics), distribution of goods and services within a society or a given geographic area. It includes the combinati ...
(e.g.
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
,
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
, etc.). Sometimes the same word is used to identify both an ideology and one of its main ideas. For instance, ''socialism'' may refer to an economic system, or it may refer to an ideology that supports that economic system.
Post 1991, many commentators claim that we are living in a post-ideological age, in which redemptive, all-encompassing ideologies have failed. This view is often associated with
Francis Fukuyama's writings on the ''
end of history''. Contrastly, Nienhueser (2011) sees research (in the field of
human resource management
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
) as ongoingly "generating ideology."
Slavoj Zizek
Slavoj may refer to:
*Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807–1884), Czech teacher, writer, and philosopher
*Slavoj Černý (born 1937), Czech former cyclist
*Slavoj Žižek (born 1949), Slovenian philosopher
See also
*Záboj and Slavoj, outdoor sculpture ...
has pointed out how the very notion of post-ideology can enable the deepest, blindest form of ideology. A sort of false consciousness or false cynicism, engaged in for the purpose of lending one's point of view the respect of being objective, pretending neutral cynicism, without truly being so. Rather than help avoiding ideology, this lapse only deepens the commitment to an existing one. Zizek calls this "a
post-modernist trap."
Peter Sloterdijk advanced the same idea already in 1988.
Studies have shown that political ideology is somewhat genetically
heritable.
Ideocracy
When a political ideology becomes a dominantly pervasive component within a government, one can speak of an ''ideocracy''. Different forms of government use ideology in various ways, not always restricted to politics and society. Certain ideas and schools of thought become favored, or rejected, over others, depending on their compatibility with or use for the reigning social order.
John Maynard Keynes said, "Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."
In ''
The Anatomy of Revolution'',
Crane Brinton said that new ideology spreads when there is discontent with an old regime. The may be repeated during revolutions itself; extremists such as
Lenin and
Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...
may thus overcome more moderate revolutionaries. This stage is soon followed by
Thermidor, a reining back of
revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.
...
enthusiasm under
pragmatists
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action (philosophy), action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, ...
like
Stalin and
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
, who bring "
normalcy and equilibrium." Brinton's sequence ("men of ideas>
fanatics>practical men of action") is reiterated by
J. William Fulbright, while a similar form occurs in
Eric Hoffer's ''
The True Believer''. The revolution thus becomes established as an ''ideocracy'', though its rise is likely to be checked by a 'political midlife crisis.'
Epistemological ideologies
Even when the challenging of existing beliefs is encouraged, as in scientific theories, the dominant
paradigm
In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field.
Etymology
''Paradigm'' comes f ...
or
mindset can prevent certain challenges, theories, or experiments from being advanced.
A special case of science that has inspired ideology is ecology, which studies the relationships among living things on Earth.
Perceptual psychologist James J. Gibson believed that human perception of ecological relationships was the basis of
self-awareness
In philosophy of self, self-awareness is the experience of one's own personality or individuality. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifesty ...
and
cognition itself.
Linguist George Lakoff
George Philip Lakoff (; born May 24, 1941) is an American cognitive linguistics, cognitive linguist and philosopher, best known for his thesis that people's lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors they use to explain comple ...
has proposed a
cognitive science of mathematics
Numerical cognition is a subdiscipline of cognitive science that studies the cognitive, developmental and neural bases of numbers and mathematics. As with many cognitive science endeavors, this is a highly interdisciplinary topic, and includes r ...
wherein even the most fundamental ideas of arithmetic would be seen as consequences or products of human perception—which is itself necessarily evolved within an ecology.
Deep ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.
Deep ecolo ...
and the modern
ecology movement (and, to a lesser degree,
Green parties
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
) appear to have adopted ecological sciences as a positive ideology.
Some notable economically based ideologies include
neoliberalism,
monetarism,
mercantilism
Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...
,
mixed economy,
social Darwinism,
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society ...
,
laissez-faire economics, and
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold ...
. There are also current theories of
safe trade and
fair trade
Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...
that can be seen as ideologies.
Ideology and the social sciences
Psychological research
A large amount of research in
psychology is concerned with the causes, consequences and content of ideology.
According to
''system justification theory'',
ideologies reflect (
unconscious)
motivational processes, as opposed to the view that political convictions always reflect independent and unbiased thinking. Jost, Ledgerwood and Hardin (2008) propose that ideologies may function as prepackaged units of
interpretation
Interpretation may refer to:
Culture
* Aesthetic interpretation, an explanation of the meaning of a work of art
* Allegorical interpretation, an approach that assumes a text should not be interpreted literally
* Dramatic Interpretation, an event ...
that spread because of basic human motives to understand the world, avoid
existential threat
A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical future event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, even endangering or destroying modern civilization. An event that could cause human extinction or permanen ...
, and maintain valued
interpersonal relationships.
[ Jost, John T., Alison Ledgerwood, and Curtis D. Hardin. 2008. "Shared reality, system justification, and the relational basis of ideological beliefs." Pp. 171–86 in ''Social and Personality Psychology Compass'' 2.] The authors conclude that such motives may lead disproportionately to the adoption of system-justifying
worldviews. Psychologists generally agree that
personality traits, individual difference variables, needs, and ideological beliefs seem to have something in common.
Semiotic theory
According to
semiotician Bob Hodge:
deologyidentifies a unitary object that incorporates complex sets of meanings with the social agents and processes that produced them. No other term captures this object as well as 'ideology'. Foucault Foucault may refer to:
*Foucault (surname)
*Léon Foucault (1819–1868), French physicist. Three notable objects were named after him:
**Foucault (crater), a small lunar impact crater
** 5668 Foucault, an asteroid
**Foucault pendulum
*Michel Fouca ...
's ' episteme' is too narrow and abstract, not social enough. His 'discourse', popular because it covers some of ideology's terrain with less baggage, is too confined to verbal systems. ' Worldview' is too metaphysical, 'propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
' too loaded. Despite or because of its contradictions, 'ideology' still plays a key role in semiotics oriented to social, political life.
Authors such as
Michael Freeden have also recently incorporated a
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
analysis to the study of ideologies.
Sociology
Sociologists define ''ideology'' as "cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, including patterns of inequality."
Dominant groups use these sets of cultural beliefs and practices to justify the systems of inequality that maintain their group's social power over non-dominant groups. Ideologies use a society's symbol system to organize social relations in a
hierarchy
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
, with some social identities being superior to other social identities, which are considered inferior. The dominant ideology in a society is passed along through the society's major social institutions, such as the media, the family, education, and religion. As societies changed throughout history, so did the ideologies that justified systems of inequality.
Sociological examples of ideologies include:
racism;
sexism;
heterosexism;
ableism; and
ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of ...
.
Quotations
* "We do not need…to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities. The need for a sense of universal responsibility affects every aspect of modern life." —
Dalai Lama.
* "The function of ideology is to stabilize and perpetuate dominance through masking or illusion." —
Sally Haslanger
* "
ideology differs from a simple opinion in that it claims to possess either the key to history, or the solution for all the ‘riddles of the universe,’ or the intimate knowledge of the hidden universal laws, which are supposed to rule nature and man." —
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
Arendt was born ...
[ Arendt, Hannah. 1968. '' The Origins of Totalitarianism.'' ]Harcourt Harcourt may refer to:
People
*Harcourt (surname)
* Harcourt (given name)
Places
Canada
*Harcourt Parish, New Brunswick
* Harcourt, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community
* Harcourt, Ontario, a village
*Harcourt, Newfoundland and Labrad ...
. p. 159.
See also
*
The Anatomy of Revolution
*
List of communist ideologies
*
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
*
Feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
*
Hegemony
*
-ism
''-ism'' is a suffix in many English words, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix ('), and reaching English through the Latin , and the French . It means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philosoph ...
*
List of ideologies named after people
*
Ideocracy
*
Noble lie
*
Politicisation
*
Social criticism
*
Socially constructed reality
Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theor ...
*
State collapse
*
State ideology of the Soviet Union
The ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Bolshevist Marxism–Leninism, an ideology of a centralised command economy with a vanguardist one-party state to realise the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviet Union's ...
*
The True Believer
*
World Values Survey
*
World view
References
Bibliography
*
Althusser, Louis.
9701971. "
Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." In ''
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays''. Monthly Review Press .
* Belloni, Claudio. 2013. ''Per la critica dell’ideologia:'' ''Filosofia e storia in Marx.'' Milan: Mimesis.
*
Debord, Guy. 1967
The Society of the Spectacle. BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS 2014 (Annotated Edition)
* Duncker, Christian 2006. ''Kritische Reflexionen Des Ideologiebegriffes''. .
* —, ed. 2008.
Ideologiekritik Aktuell" ''Ideologies Today'' 1''.'' London. .
* Eagleton, Terry. 1991.
Ideology: An Introduction'.
Verso. .
*
Ellul, Jacques.
965
Year 965 ( CMLXV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Nikephoros II conquers the fortress cities of Tar ...
1973. ''
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes'', translated by
K. Kellen and J. Lerner. New York:
Random House.
*
Freeden, Michael. 1996. ''Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach''. Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
.
* Feuer, Lewis S. 2010. ''Ideology and Ideologists.'' Piscataway, NJ:
Transaction Publishers.
*
Gries, Peter Hays. 2014. ''The Politics of American Foreign Policy: How Ideology Divides Liberals and Conservatives over Foreign Affairs''. Stanford:
Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...
.
* Haas, Mark L. 2005.
The Ideological Origins of Great Power Politics, 1789–1989'.
Cornell University Press
The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in ...
. .
*
Hawkes, David. 2003. ''Ideology'' (2nd ed.).
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...
. .
*
James, Paul, and
Manfred Steger. 2010
''Globalization and Culture, Vol. 4: Ideologies of Globalism'' London:
SAGE Publications
SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California.
It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...
.
*
Lukács, Georg.
967
Year 967 ( CMLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – Emperor Otto I (the Great) calls for a council at Rome, to present the ne ...
1919–1923.
History and Class Consciousness', translated by R. Livingstone. Merlin Press.
*
Malesevic, Sinisa, and
Iain Mackenzie, eds. ''Ideology after Poststructuralism''. London:
Pluto Press.
*
Mannheim, Karl. 1936. ''Ideology and Utopia.'' Routledge.
*
Marx, Karl.
845–461932.
The German Ideology''
*
Minogue, Kenneth. 1985. ''Alien Powers: The Pure Theory of Ideology''.
Palgrave Macmillan. .
* Minar, David W. 1961. "Ideology and Political Behavior." ''
Midwest Journal of Political Science'' 5(4):317–31. . .
* Mullins, Willard A. 1972.:)) "On the Concept of Ideology in Political Science." ''
American Political Science Review'' 66(2):498–510. .
* Owen, John. 2011
''The Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change, 1510-2010'' Princeton University Press. .
*
Pinker, Steven
Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.
P ...
. 2002. ''
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature''. New York:
Penguin Group. .
* Sorce Keller, Marcello. 2007. "Why is Music so Ideological, Why Do Totalitarian States Take It So Seriously: A Personal View from History, and the Social Sciences." ''Journal of Musicological Research'' 26(2–3):91–122.
* Steger, Manfred B., and Paul James. 2013.
Levels of Subjective Globalization: Ideologies, Imaginaries, Ontologies" ''Perspectives on Global Development and Technology'' 12(1–2):17–40.
* Verschueren, Jef. 2012. ''Ideology in Language Use: Pragmatic Guidelines for Empirical Research''.
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambr ...
.
*
Zizek, Slavoj. 1989. ''
The Sublime Object of Ideology''. Verso. .
External links
''The Pervert's Guide to Ideology'': How Ideology Seduces Us—and How We Can (Try to) Escape It* Toll, Mathew (2009
{{Authority control
1790s neologisms
Critical theory
Political terminology
Philosophical theories
Schools of thought
Sociological terminology