Michael Freeden is a Professorial Research Associate at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
. He is also Emeritus Professorial Fellow at
Mansfield College, Oxford
Mansfield College, Oxford is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The college was founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist (Protestantism), Non ...
. Between 2013 and 2015, he was Professor of Political Theory in the
School of Politics and International Relations at the
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
.
He is a leading theorist of ideology and the founding editor of the ''
Journal of Political Ideologies
The ''Journal of Political Ideologies'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering the analysis of political ideologies. It was established by Michael Freeden and first published in 1996. Since January 2021, it has been edited by Math ...
''.
Study of ideologies
Freeden has been noted for his analysis of contemporary
ideologies
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, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
. He has rejected the traditional definition of ideologies, which sees the latter as static "belief systems" and instead bases his analysis on modern
semantics
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
Philosophy (f ...
. Just like
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
s, ideologies consist of certain concepts whose meaning may change and evolve over time. The specific relations between ideological concepts may be analyzed by being set in their respective
semantic field
In linguistics, a semantic field is a lexical set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject.Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela, ''Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary'', Continuum, 2000, p14. The term is also used in ...
s.
Each ideology may be seen as having both "core" concepts (that is, those of the highest importance, e.g. ''
class conflict
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 ...
'' in Marxism or ''
freedom
Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...
'' in liberalism) and "peripheral" (or secondary) concepts. Concepts may gain or lose importance over time, just as new concepts may emerge (or be borrowed from other ideologies) or fall out of use entirely.
Different ideologies may give different meanings to the same term (a concept such as ''equality'' will have a
material
Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologi ...
definition in
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 ...
while in
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 ...
it will rather have a
legal
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
and political importance). In this sense, concepts are defined by their relation to other concepts. According to Freeden, it is precisely these conceptual relations that should attract our attention as they will be likely to evolve in the long term.
By studying the conceptual evolution of ideologies, Freeden observes that the relative "political success" of an ideology depends on its ability to impose the belief that its own conceptual definitions are the "correct ones". This gives rise to a form of "conceptual competition", in which each ideology performs a continuous "decontestation" of its concepts; that is, it tries to eliminate all possible contestation of its own conceptual definitions, thereby rejecting competing definitions (Marxism will thus reject ''
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 ...
'' as a product of the
exploitative nature of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
, just as liberalism may view ''
state intervention
Economic interventionism, sometimes also called state interventionism, is an economic policy position favouring government intervention in the market process with the intention of correcting market failures and promoting the general welfare of ...
'' as an infringement of
individual freedom
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-relianc ...
s).
This decontestation is not only the product of an ''inter''-ideological competition (between ideologies), but it is also the product of an ''intra''-ideological competition (within ideologies): hence the success of
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
's form of
neoliberalism
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
during the 1980s, or of the
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
trend in the 1920s.
Works
* ''The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform'' (Oxford, 1978)
* ''Liberalism Divided: A Study in British Political Thought 1914-1939'' (Oxford, 1986)
* ''J.A. Hobson: A Reader'' (London, 1988)
* ''Minutes of the Rainbow Circle 1894–1924, edited and annotated'' (London, 1989)
* ''Reappraising J.A. Hobson: Humanism and Welfare'' (ed.) (London, 1990)
* ''Rights'' (Buckingham, 1991)
* ''Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach'' (Oxford, 1998)
* ''Reassessing Political Ideologies: The Durability of Dissent'' (ed.) (London, 2001)
* ''Ideology: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford, 2003)
* ''Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth Century Progressive Thought'' (Princeton, 2005
* ''Taking Ideology Seriously: 21st Century Reconfigurations'' (co-editor with G. Talshir and M. Humphrey) (London, 2006)
* ''The Political Theory of Political Thinking: The Anatomy of a Practice'' (Oxford, 2013)
* ''Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford, 2015)
References
External links
Freeden biography in Oxford Staff DirectoryInterview of Michael Freeden by Sami Syrjämäki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeden, Michael
Living people
British political scientists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Fellows of Mansfield College, Oxford