An ideology is a set of

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...

s 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 (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

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 studies ...

, or

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

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 Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' The term was coined by

Antoine Destutt de Tracy Antoine Louis Claude Destutt, comte de Tracy (; 20 July 1754 – 9 March 1836) was a French Enlightenment aristocrat and philosopher who coined the term " ideology". Biography The son of a distinguished soldier, Claude Destutt, he was born i ...

, a French Enlightenment

aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Ro ...

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 Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, the term is used in a

descriptive In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...

sense to refer to political belief systems.

Etymology and history

The term ''ideology'' originates from French ''idéologie'', itself deriving from combining (; close to the

Lockean John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of ...

sense of ''idea'') and '' -logíā'' (). The term ideology, and the system of ideas associated with it, was coined in 1796 by

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 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

s, 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 Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

philosophy that would defend

individual liberty Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

free markets In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

, 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 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 ...

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 Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abili ...

system of ideas to oppose the

irrational Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking, or acting without inclusion of rationality. It is more specifically described as an action or opinion given through inadequate use of reason, or through emotional distress or cognitive deficiency. T ...

mob impulses that had nearly destroyed him. A subsequent early source for the near-original meaning of ''ideology'' is

Hippolyte Taine Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...

's work on the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

, ''Origins of Contemporary France'' I. He describes ''ideology'' as rather like teaching philosophy via the

Socratic method The Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate) is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw ...

, 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 The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educate ...

, 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 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 ...

. According to

Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...

'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 Traditionalism (Spain), Traditionalist and Legitimists (disambiguation), Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the House of Bourbon, Bourbon dynasty ...

rebels in Spain; the Carbonari societies in France and Italy; and the

Decembrists The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Ale ...

in Russia.

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 group In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...

s. While Marx situated the term within

class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

and domination, others believed it was a necessary part of institutional functioning and

social integration Social integration is the process during which newcomers or minorities are incorporated into the social structure of the host society. Social integration, together with economic integration and identity integration, are three main dimensions of ...

Definitions and analysis

There are many different kinds of ideologies, including

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 Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

. 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 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 Manfred D. Steger (born 1961) is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He was also Professor of Global Studies and Director of the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT University in Australia until 2013. Background Steger was born in Aus ...

and Paul James emphasize both the issue of patterning and

contingent Contingency or Contingent may refer to: * Contingency (philosophy), in philosophy and logic * Contingency plan, in planning * Contingency table, in statistics * Contingency theory, in organizational theory * Contingency theory (biology) in evoluti ...

claims to truth: Studies of the concept of ideology itself (rather than specific ideologies) have been carried out under the name of ''

systematic ideology Systematic ideology is a study of ideologies founded in the late 1930s in and around London, England by Harold Walsby, George Walford and others. It seeks to understand the origin and development of ideologies, how ideologies and ideological groups ...

'' in the works of George Walford and Harold Walsby, who attempt to explore the relationships between ideology and

social system In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. ...

s. 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 logic In classical logic, classical deductive logic, a consistent theory (mathematical logic), theory is one that does not lead to a logical contradiction. The lack of contradiction can be defined in either semantic or syntactic terms. The semantic de ...

al 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 A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

'' and ''historical myth''. An ideology is composed of four basic characteristics: # it must have power over

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

; # it must be capable of guiding one's

evaluation Evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative ...

s; # it must provide guidance towards action; and # it must be logically coherent.

Terry Eagleton Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books, ...

outlines (more or less in no particular order) some definitions of ideology:Eagleton, Terry. 1991.
Ideology: An Introduction
''.

Verso ' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Etymology The terms are shortened from Latin ...

. . # 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 In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally rel ...

# 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 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 history, defining ''ideology'' in terms of a system of presentations that explicitly or implicitly claim to

absolute truth In philosophy, universality or absolutism is the idea that universal facts exist and can be progressively discovered, as opposed to relativism, which asserts that all facts are merely relative to one's perspective. Absolutism and relativism have ...

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 In Marxist theory, society consists of two parts: the base (or substructure) and superstructure. The base refers to the mode of production which includes the forces and relations of production (e.g. employer–employee work conditions, the t ...

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 In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (German: ''Produktionsweise'', "the way of producing") is a specific combination of the: * Productive forces: these include human labour power and means of production (tools, ...

, and ''superstructure'' denotes the

dominant ideology In Marxist philosophy, the term dominant ideology denotes the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society. As a mechanism of social control, the dominant ideology frames how the majority of the p ...

(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 In sociology, the ruling class of a society is the social class who set and decide the political and economic agenda of society. In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the capitalist social class who own the means of production and by exten ...

control the

means of production The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as an ...

. 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 Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

mode of production In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (German: ''Produktionsweise'', "the way of producing") is a specific combination of the: * Productive forces: these include human labour power and means of production (tools ...

, religious ideology is the most prominent aspect of the superstructure, while in capitalist formations, ideologies such as

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

and

social democracy Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...

dominate. Hence the great importance of ideology justifies a society and politically confuses the alienated groups of society via

false consciousness In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the ex ...

. Some explanations have been presented.

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

uses

cultural hegemony In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of t ...

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 The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and the effects that prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology. Instead, it dea ...

, viz.

Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (May 10, 1919 – January 25, 2011) was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor at Harvard University, best known for his contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading Am ...

, 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 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 ...

) resulted from social life, an idea developed by the sociologist

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence i ...

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 The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...

added to the "general theory" of ideology a psychoanalytic insight that ideologies do not include only conscious, but also

unconscious Unconscious may refer to: Physiology * Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli Psychology * Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...

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," 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

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 Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis ...

Ideology and the Commodity (Debord)

The French

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), 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:Eric Hoffer, 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." 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 Islamic or Communism, 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, 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 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. Christianity in Europe, Protestant Europe, 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 ideal (ethics), ideals, principles, doctrines, mythology, myths, or symbols of a social movement, institution, social class, class, or large group that explains how society 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, education, health care, labor law, criminal law, the justice system, the provision of social security and social welfare, trade, the environmentalism, environment, minor (law), minors, immigration, race (classification of human beings), race, use of the military, patriotism, and established religion. 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-wing politics, left, the center (politics), center or the right-wing politics, right), though precision in this respect can often become controversial. Finally, ideologies can be distinguished from political strategy, political strategies (e.g., populism) and from Single-issue politics, single issues that a party may be built around (e.g. Marijuana political parties, 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 philosophy, political ''philosophies''. A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate power (sociology), 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 (e.g., democracy, demagogy, theocracy, caliphate etc.), scope of government (e.g. authoritarianism, libertarianism, federalism, etc.) and the best economic system (e.g. capitalism, socialism, 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) as ongoingly "generating ideology." Slavoj Zizek 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 Postmodernism, post-modernist trap." Peter Sloterdijk advanced the same idea already in 1988. Studies have shown that political ideology is somewhat genetically Heritability, 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 may thus overcome more moderate revolutionaries. This stage is soon followed by Thermidor, a reining back of revolutionary enthusiasm under Pragmatism, pragmatists like Stalin and

, who bring "Return to normalcy, normalcy and equilibrium." Brinton's sequence ("men of ideas>Fanaticism, 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 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 psychology, Perceptual psychologist James J. Gibson believed that human perception of ecological relationships was the basis of self-awareness and

itself. Linguistics, Linguist George Lakoff has proposed a cognitive science of mathematics 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 and the modern ecology movement (and, to a lesser degree, Green parties) appear to have adopted ecological sciences as a positive ideology. Some notable economically based ideologies include neoliberalism, monetarism, mercantilism, mixed economy, social Darwinism, communism, laissez-faire, laissez-faire economics, and free trade. There are also current theories of safe trade and fair trade 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, ''system justification theory'', ideologies reflect (Unconscious mind, 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 (logic), interpretation that spread because of basic human motives to understand the world, avoid existential threat, and maintain valued interpersonal relationships.John Jost, 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 Semiotics, semiotician Bob Hodge (linguist), Bob Hodge:

[Ideology] identifies 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'. Michel Foucault, Foucault'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 Metaphysics, metaphysical, 'propaganda' 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 semantics, semantic analysis to the study of ideologies.

Sociology

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, 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.

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 * "[A]n 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 ArendtHannah Arendt, Arendt, Hannah. 1968. ''The Origins of Totalitarianism.'' Harcourt (publisher), Harcourt. p. 159.

References

Bibliography

* Louis Althusser, Althusser, Louis. [1970] 1971. "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. * Guy Debord, Debord, Guy. 1967 The Society of the Spectacle. BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS 2014 (Annotated Edition) * Duncker, Christian 2006. ''Kritische Reflexionen Des Ideologiebegriffes''. . * —, ed. 2008.
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" ''Ideologies Today'' 1''.'' London. . * Eagleton, Terry. 1991.
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. . * Jacques Ellul, Ellul, Jacques. [1965] 1973. ''Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes'', translated by Konrad Kellen, K. Kellen and J. Lerner. New York: Random House. * Michael Freeden, Freeden, Michael. 1996. ''Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Feuer, Lewis S. 2010. ''Ideology and Ideologists.'' Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers. * Peter Gries, Gries, Peter Hays. 2014. ''The Politics of American Foreign Policy: How Ideology Divides Liberals and Conservatives over Foreign Affairs''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * Haas, Mark L. 2005.
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'. Cornell University Press. . * David Hawkes (professor of English), Hawkes, David. 2003. ''Ideology'' (2nd ed.). Routledge. . * Paul James (academic), James, Paul, and

. 2010
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London: SAGE Publishing, SAGE Publications. * György Lukács, Lukács, Georg. [1967] 1919–1923.
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', translated by R. Livingstone. Merlin Press. * Sinisa Malesevic, Malesevic, Sinisa, and Iain McKenzie, Iain Mackenzie, eds. ''Ideology after Poststructuralism''. London: Pluto Press. * Karl Mannheim, Mannheim, Karl. 1936. ''Ideology and Utopia.'' Routledge. * Marx, Karl. [1845–46] 1932.
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'' * Kenneth Minogue, 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. . * Steven Pinker, Pinker, Steven. 2002. ''The Blank Slate, 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. * Slavoj Žižek, 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 Ideologies, 1790s neologisms Critical theory Political terminology Philosophical theories Schools of thought Sociological terminology