Political Ideas and

Ideologies
Chapter 2, Heywood’s Politics, 4th edition
“Theory is when you have ideas. Ideology is when ideas
have you.” (Casambre, 2017: 63)
 Idealogie

• a term coined by Antoine Destutt de Tracy

during the French Revolution
• referred to a new science of ideas
Meanings of Ideology:
• a political belief system
• an action-orientated set of ideas
• the ideas of the ruling class
• the world view of a particular social class or social
group
• political ideas that embody or articulate class or
social interests
• ideas that propagate false consciousness amongst
the exploited or oppressed
Meanings of Ideology:
• ideas that situate the individual within a social context
and generate a sense of collective belonging
• ideas that situate the individual within a social context
and generate a sense of collective belonging
• an officially sanctioned set of ideas used to legitimize
a political system
• an all-embracing political doctrine that claims a
monopoly of truth
• an abstract and highly systematic set of political ideas
 Ideology

• a coherent set of ideas that provides the

basis for organized political action, whether
this is intended to preserve, modify, or
overthrow the existing system of power.
 Hegemony

• implies ideological domination

 Ideologies
a. offer an account of (critique of) the existing
order, in the form of a “worldview”
b. advance a model of desired future, a vision
of the good society
c. explain how political change can and should
be brought about (how to get from “a” to “b”)
 3 Classical Ideological Traditions*

• LIBERALISM (Lockean view)

• CONSERVATISM
• SOCIALISM

*developed in order to influence and shape emerging industrial society

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9fQPzZ1-hg
 Category Liberalism Conservatism Socialism

1. Critique of a reaction against the a reaction against the

the social a reaction against
Absolutism
growing pace of Economic
and Political change
emergence of industrial
capitalism
order

2. Vision of a constitutional and

representative government; a the ancien regime;
a Socialist society based on
common ownership;
future society minimalist or
nightwatchman state
Absolutism classless private-property
less society

3. Theory of through negative liberty; restoration of the social

1. through a Revolution
2. through Evolution

political non-interference; establish a

constitution to limit
order;
autocratic and reactionary;
through welfare,
redistribution of wealth
governmental powers change in order to conserve
change and economic
management
Category Liberalism Conservatism Socialism
a. Paternalistic conservatism-
autocratic and reactionary; rejects 1. Marxist
any form of reform a. Classical Marxism-has a
a.Classical Liberalism- a -espouses the principles of fundamentalist, utopian and
commitment to an extreme form organicism, hierarchy and duty revolutionary character;
of individualism materialist conception of
-atomist view of individuals b. New Right -shift from state to history; economic
-negative view of freedom market oriented forms of determinism; historical
-laissez faire economy organization change was dialectic(due to
(Smithsonian) b.1. Neoliberalism- the competing forces/class
entrepreneurial; to roll back the struggles) and results in a
b. Modern Liberalism-more frontiers of the state; unregulated higher stage of development
sympathetic attitude towards market capitalism will deliver
state intervention efficiency, growth and b. Orthodox communism
4. -positive view of freedom
-neoclassical economy
widespread prosperity; the nanny (Marxist-Leninist)- modified
state /welfare state breeds a the Marxist doctrines;
Strands (Keynesian)
-support for big government
culture of dependence and
undermines freedom; in support
development of the idea of
the Vanguard party for the
rather than minimal of a strong but minimal state working class
government;
-state intervention , in the form b.2.NeoConservativism-reasserts c. Neo-Marxism (Marxism as
of social welfare, can enlarge 19th C. Conservatism and social a humanist philosophy)
liberty by safeguarding principles; to restore authority
individuals from the social evils and a return to traditional values; 2. Social Democracy-
that blight individual existence against permissiveness, the self reformist and revisionist;
and doing one’s own thing evolutionary
Liberalism +welfare and -skeptical about multiculturalism New Social Democracy (neo-
redistribution revisionist)- Social
democracy+ Neoliberalism
ource: Heywood, Andrew. Political Ideology:
n Introduction. NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 2012 p.144
 Other Ideological
Traditions?
• Fascism- a revolt against the ideas and
values that had dominated western political
thought (e.g., rationalism, progress,
freedom, equality); has an anticharacter;
core theme: image of an organically unified
national community; various forms of
fascism: a. an extreme form of statism b.
one founded on the basis of racialism
(belief in a superior race)
• Anarchism- political authority in all its
forms, especially in the form of a a state, is
both evil and unnecessary; preference for a
stateless society in which free individuals
manage their own affairs through voluntary
agreement and cooperation; based on liberal
individualism and socialist
communitarianism
• Feminism- a) first-wave feminism -liberal
feminism (1840s and 1850s)-women’s suffrage
movement; b) socialist feminism- the
relationship between the sexes is rooted in the
social and economic structure c) second-wave
feminism (1960s)- radical and revolutionary
demands to enhance the social role of women in
a patriarchal society where sexual oppression is
the fundamental feature of this society; liberal,
socialist and radical schools of feminist thought
• Green politics- concerned about the damage
done to the natural world by the increasing
pace of economic development; ecocentric
worldview that portrays human beings as
merely part of nature; extreme form: deep
ecologism
• Cosmopolitanism- 1990s ideological tradition; the
ideological expression of globalization; a belief in a
world state; Moral cosmopolitanism (people have
obligations towards all other people in the world,
e.g., human rights); Liberal
cosmopolitanism(attempt to universalize civic and
political rights, hence support for humanitarian
intervention; attempt to universalize market society;
Socialist cosmopolitanism- belief that proletarian
class solidarity has transnational character; Cultural
cosmopolitanism?
Non-western Ideological
trends
•Postcolonialism- sought to give the non-western
world a distinctive political voice separate from the
universalist tendencies of liberalism and socialism
(e.g., Gandhi’s political philosophy on religious
ethic of non-violence and self-sacrifice)
• Religious fundamentalism- Islamic
fundamentalism or political Islam, in particular; the
goal is to establish an Islamic state based on the
principles of shari’ a law (e.g., Iran-first Islamic
state); Islamism has been a vehicle for expressing
anti-westernism
• Asian values- fuelled by the emergence of Asian
economic superpowers (tiger economies); drew attention
to differences between Asian and western value systems;
offered a vision of social harmony, cooperation
grounded in loyalty, duty and respect for authority
• Beyond dualism- influenced by Buddhist and Taoist
thoughts-”all concepts and objects lack “own being”,
highlighting intrinsic interdependence, the world is
characterized by absolute unity of opposites; stresses
integration and oneness
 Ideology Distinctive set of values and beliefs

individualism, freedom, reason, foundational

Liberals equality, legal & political equality, toleration,
consent, constitutionalism

tradition, pragmatism, human imperfection,

Conservatives organicism, hierarchy and authority, property

community, fraternity, social equality, need, social

Socialists class, common ownership

anti-statism, utopianism, anti-clericalism, economic

Anarchists freedom

the nation, organic community, self-determination,

Nationalists culturalism

anti-rationalism, struggle,leadership and elitism,

Fascists socialism, ultranationalism
 Ideology Distinctive set of values and beliefs

redefining the political, patriarchy, sex and

Feminists gender, equality and difference

ecology, holism, sustainability, environmental

Ecologists ethics, from having to being

religion as politics, the fundamentalist

Religious fundamentalists impulse, anti-modernism, militancy

politics of recognition, culture and identity,

Multiculturalists minority rights, diversity
Communism Socialism Liberalism Conservation Fascism

Communism Fascism

Socialism Conservatism

Liberalism