Chapter 1: Ideology
and Ideologies
What is Ideology?
Why Study It?
Goals
Original meaning of the term ideology
Define “ideology”
Identify four functions of ideology
Explore connection between ideology and
human nature
 Discuss link between ideologies and
“freedom”
 Discuss link between ideology and
revolutionary political changes
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“Age of Ideology”
 “Age of ideologies” (plural, not singular)
 contrasting and competing ideologies
 Ferocity of political conflicts
 wars, civil wars, wars of national liberation, and
revolutions
 High degree of ideological conflict and
increasing sophistication and destructive
potential of technology make a potent and
explosive combination
 Need to appreciate awesome power of
technology and power of political ideas and
ideologies
Ideology, Old and New
 Originally referred to systematic study of
the origins or sources of ideas
 18TH-century notion did not survive into the
nineteenth century
 Ideology came to mean a set of ideas that
was somehow suspect, and quite probably
false
 Ideology still retains this meaning for many
of us
 For us, “ideology” will have no pejorative or
unfavorable connotations
Ideology Defined
 Ideology (see page 4)
 Set of ideas that tries to link thought with action
 Attempts to shape how people think and act
 = fairly coherent and comprehensive set of
ideas that explains and evaluates social
conditions, helps people understand their place
in society, and provides a program for social and
political action
 Performs four functions
 explanatory, evaluative, orientative, and
programmatic
What Ideologies Do
 Explanatory
 Purports to explain political phenomena
 Why social, political, and economic conditions are as
they are
 Evaluative
 Offers a basis for evaluating social conditions
 Whether good, bad, or indifferent
 Orientative
 Orients its adherents to the sociopolitical world
 Gives them a sense of identity, purpose, place
 Programmatic
 Provides a program of political action
 What to do and how to do it
We All Have One
 Everyone has a political ideology
 Without one, we would be…
 relatively disoriented
 unable to account for puzzling political
and social phenomena
 lack a basis for moral and political
evaluation
 unsure of what we should be doing, and
with (or to) whom we should be doing it
Different Strokes For
Different Folks
 Different ideologies fulfill the four
functions in quite different ways
 Each supplies its adherents with quite
different…
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Explanations
Standards of evaluation
Social orientations
Programs of political action
View of Human Nature
 Every ideology has at its core a view
of human nature
 A conception of what human beings
are
 What moves or motivates them
 What they are capable of achieving
 How they are (or ought to be) related
to others
Freedom
 Every ideology harbors a particular
view of freedom (or liberty)
 Freedom, for a fascist, means
something quite different than it does
for a feminist, a liberal, or a Marxist.
How can this be?
 Freedom, like democracy, is an
“essentially contested concept” = a
concept whose meaning is forever in
dispute
Three Features of Freedom
 Freedom is a three-sided or triadic relation
(MacCallum 1967)
 (1) an agent = someone who is said to be free
(or unfree, as the case may be)
 (2) a goal = something at which the agent aims
or hopes to achieve
 (3) an obstacle (or obstacles) = the actual or
potential barriers that stand in an agent’s way
 “A is free” = an agent (A) is free from an
obstacle or barrier (B) and is therefore free
to achieve his or her aims or goals (C)
Liberals and Freedom
 Agent = individual
 Obstacle = other individuals with
whom he or she is in economic or
other competition
 Goal = success in his or her
competitive endeavor
Marxists and Freedom
 Agent = the working class
 Obstacle = the capitalists and the
economic system over which they
preside (namely, capitalism)
 Goal = emancipation of workers in a
cooperative, classless communist
society
Nazis and Freedom
 Agent = racial or ethnic group (a
Volk)
 Obstacle = presence, influence, and
even ideas of Jews and other
supposedly “inferior” races or ethnic
groups
 Goal = racial purity
Ideologies and Revolution
 Modern ideologies are alike in being
revolutionary
 Each seeks to remake the world in its own
image
 Each tries to turn the world upside down
 Each views the political world in different ways
 Each ideology
 offers its own explanation and evaluation of
otherwise puzzling political and economic events
 orients its adherents in a distinctive way
 offers its own political program -- its own vision
of the good society
Ideas Matter
 Ideologies predicated on notion that ideas
are important
 Ideas do, or can, make a big political
difference
 People die, often quite willingly, in wars
and revolutions, not merely because they
expect to enjoy some material or economic
advantage
 They believe strongly and fervently in the
transforming power of ideas
Why Study Ideologies?
 Political ideas and ideals have had, and
continue to have, a profound impact in
reshaping the political landscape in which
we live
 Behooves us to understand the nature of
the ideologies that have made a deep and
lasting impression upon our world
Key Terms
 Ideologies
 Ideologue
 Essentially contested
concept
 Revolution
 Nationalism
 Anarchism
 Empirical
 Normative
 Explanatory
function
 Evaluative function
 Orientative
function
 Programmatic
function
 Triadic model of
freedom
Discussion Questions
1. What four functions do ideologies perform?
Describe each in turn.
2. Why is some conception of human nature
important to a political ideology?
3. How are political ideologies like
revolutionary movements?
4. In what ways is an ideology similar to, and
different from, a scientific theory or a
religion?
5. Ball and Dagger maintain nationalism and
anarchism are not political ideologies. Do
you agree? Explain.