POLITICAL IDEAS

AND IDEOLOGIES
 Key Issues
• What is political ideology?
• Is politics intrinsically linked to ideology? Can
ideology come to an end?
• What are the key ideas and theories of the major
ideological traditions?
• What internal tensions do each of the major ideologies
encompass?
• How has ideological thought changed over time?
• How can the rise and fall of ideologies be explained?
 Key Concepts

• Ideology
• Third way
• Ecologism
• Post-colonialism
• Fundamentalism
 The nature of ideology
• In the social-scientific sense, ideology is a coherent set
of ideas which provide a basis for organized political
action
• Although the term now tends to be used in a neutral sense,
to refer to a developed social philosophy or world-view, it has
in the past had heavily negative or pejorative connotations.

• Central features:
1) Account of existing power relationships
2) A model of a defined future (interrelated set of ideas)
3) An outline of how political change can and should be
brought about (political action oriented belief system)

• Competing definitions: Marxist, Liberal, Conservative

 The nature of ideology
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways:
the point is to change it.” Karl Marx (Theses on Feuerbach, 1845)
“The ideas of the ruling class is in every epoch the ruling ideas,
i.e. the class which is the ruling material forces in society, is at the
same time the ruling intellectual force. The class which has the
means of material production at its disposal, has control at the
same time over the means of mental production.” Karl Marx &
Friedrich Engels (The German Ideology, 1846, 1970, 64)
Liberals and conservatives alike, viewed ideology as an
instrument of control to ensure compliance and subordination. All
of them denied The End of Ideology (Daniel Bell, 1960) and
Francis Fukuyama The End of History and the Last Man (1992)
liberal democracy won by promising higher economic growth and
material affluence. At the heart of these debates lies the question
about the relationship between politics and ideology, specifically
about whether politics can exist without ideology..
 Liberalism
• Meta-ideology: is capable of embracing a broad range of rival values and
beliefs. Until the early 19th century, a political doctrine which defends
constitutionalism against absolutism; then, a liberal economic creed had
developed that condemned all forms of government intervention.
• Key ideas: individualism, freedom (under the law), reason (progress,
Enlightenment), equality(equal opportunity, meritocracy), toleration (pluralism),
consent (representation and democracy, legitimacy from below),
constitutionalism (protect the individual against the tyranny of the government)
• Classical liberalism: a commitment to an extreme form of individualism
(atomist society); belief in ‘negative’ liberty, non-interference; belief in the state
as necessary evil and nightwatchman; economic liberalism, laissez faire.
• Modern liberalism: characterized by a more sympathetic attitude towards
state intervention; a broader ‘positive’ liberty which is linked to the personal
development and flourishing of the individual; the state protects against the “five
giants”, want, ignorance, idleness, squalor and disease. John Keynes, regulated
capitalism; John Rawls reconcile principles of liberalism with politics of welfare
and redistribution.
 Conservatism
• Ideas arose as a reaction against the change symbolized by the
French revolution in the 18.& early 19th ct. Ancien Regime (Eski
Rejim)
• Key ideas: tradition (time test; sense of belonging; stability and
trust), pragmatism (infinite complexity of the world), human
imperfection(human nature is broadly pessimistic), organicism
(society is an organic whole, the whole society is more than its
individual parts), hierarchy(differing roles and responsibilities of
parents and children e.g.), authority (obligations and duties are
accepted; social cohesion), property(gives security and
encourages them to respect law and the property of others;
duties and rights: inherited from the past or may be the value to
future ones.)
 Conservatism
• Paternalistic conservatism: reform from above is preferred to revolution from
below; often linked to the idea of ‘compassionate conservatism’ due to
noblesse oblige– consistent with ideas of hierarchy and duty. (Disraeli’s
One-Nation principle) after 1945, the principles of Christian democracy
embraced “social market” philosophy
• The New Right can be traced back to the end of post-War boom in the
1970s –born out of apparent failure of Keynesian social democracy and
concern about social breakdown. Thatcherizm&Reaganizm in the 1980s: the
free economy & the strong state. They merged both forms explained below.
• Neoliberalism (economic strand): Thatcher: “there is no such thing as
society, only individuals and their families.” “the nanny state” breeds a
culture of dependence and to undermine freedom of choice in the
marketplace; self-help, individual responsibility, and enterpreneuralism
(Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Robert Nozick)
• Neoconservatism(social strand):restore authority&return to traditional values.
Concern about multicultural&multireligious societies, growing influence of
supranational bodies(UN&the EU); narrow form of nationalism.
 Socialism
• Socialism developed in the early 19th ct. as a reaction to industrial
capitalism and became associated with the interests of the growing
working classes. Its goal was to abolish the capitalist market
economy and replace it with a society constructed on the basis of
common ownership. In the 20th ct. Lenin and the Bolsheviks called
themselves communists (revolutionary), while the reformist socialists
came to be called social democrats. Eastern European revolutions of
1889-91 led to the collapse of communism.
• Key ideas: community (common humanity and social creature),
fraternity (cooperation and brotherhood of all humans), social
equality (social equality and equality of opportunities), need (from
each according his ability, to ach according to his need), social class
(the most significant social cleavage), common ownership(the end of
socialism or the means for a broader equality)
 Socialism
• Classical Marxism (historical materialism and the dictatorship of proletariat),
Orthodox communism (Leninism and the vanguard party; Stalin’s state
collectivization and central planning in the 1930’s, dictatorship), neo-
Marxism (Western Marxists have abandoned the base-superstructure
straitjacket. It stresses ‘Man the creator’ early writings of Marx. Instead of
class struggle, the reification (şeyleştirme)and dehumanizing aspects of
capitalism is underlined. Gramsci political and cultural hegemony, Frankfurt
critical theorists a blend of Marxist political economy, Hegelian philosophy,
Freudian psychology. Habermas joined later; Cox hegemonic power of the
USA, Wallerstein’s capitalism as a “world system”)
• Social democracy: a balance between the market and the state; capitalism is
accepted, but it is desired to distribute wealth in accordance with moral
rather than market principles.
• ‘New’ social democracy (The Third Way): reconcile old style social
democracy with electorally attractive aspects of neo-liberalism. Clinton: “a
hand up, not a hand out”. Neo-liberals “standing on your own feet.”
 Other Ideological Traditions
• Fascism: a child of the 20th ct. ‘1789 is dead’ Rationalism, progress, freedom,
equality are replaced by struggle, leadership, power, heroism and war.
‘Anticharacter’.. image of an organically unified national community: strength through
unity. ‘New man’ is a hero, motivated by duty, honour, self-sacrifice, prepared to
dedicate his life to the glory of his nation or race, and not to give unquestioning
obedience to a supreme leader. Gentile: “everything for the state, nothing against the
state, nothing outside the state.”
• Anarchism: political authority is in all its forms, especially in the form of the state, is
both evil and unnecessary. Ultra-liberalism (individualism) and ultrasocialism
• Feminism: 1840s and 1850s achievement of female suffrage, 1960s second wave
(liberal, socialist and radical (the personal is the political))
• Green politics: the end of 20th ct, alternative to the anthropocentric, or human-centric
view adopted by other ideologies. Ecologism (environmentalism) secure planetary
and human survival. Biocentric and econcentric (humans are part of nature)
• Cosmopolitanism: since the 1990s; cosmopolis ‘world government’. (moral
cosmopolitanism is anti-globalization activism; liberal cosmopolitanism favors
humanitarian intervention, universalizing market economy or the class struggle.
 Non-western ideological trends
• Post-colonialism: 1955 Bandung Conference (Egypt, Ghana, India,
Indonesia) The Non-Aligned Movement 29 countries (Third-World)
Gandhi’s political philosophy based on a religious ethic of non-violence and
self-sacrifice; Franz Fanon highlighted the extent to which colonial rule operates
at a psycho-political level through relationship between whites and blacks that
could only be destroyed through the purifying force of ‘absolute violence’.
• Fundamentalism: on the rise since the 1970s; Ayatollah Khomeini (1900-
1989) established the first Islamic state through revolution. The anti-
westernism, antipathy towards the neo-colonial policies of the West and
anxiety about the imposition of permissive and materialist values. 1997-2001
Taliban regime in Afghanistan
• Asian values: in the 1980 &1990s in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and
Singapore tiger economies and in Japan’s rise to an economic super power
(loyalty, duty and respect for authority) Their influence declined after the
1997-98 crisis.
• Beyond dualism: lack of own being, highlighting interdependence. Buddhism
and Taoism(mind/body, good-evil, subject-object, nature-humankind)