WEEK 7: DEFINING POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

1. Daniel Bell: Ideology is an all-inclusive system of comprehensive reality, a set of beliefs, infused with passion that seeks to transform the whole of a way of life;
2. The notion of the end-of-ideology raises several problems; first as Love points out: By what criteria can we assess the truth claims of various ideologies?
3. Second: consensus, rather than indicating genuine agreement might reflect the power of ideology to suppress conflict and silence opposition;
4. Third, ideologies serve many functions: 1) communication, 2) legitimation, 3) socialization, 4) mobilization;
5. Denigrating ideologies may espouse a similarly self-interested position;
6. Often, the celebration of the end of ideology adopts a definition of ideology that is itself anti-ideological (hence ideologized);
7. MacIntyre: might a politics without HOPE be as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than the utopian schemes that precede it?

Defining ideology
1. Oxford English Dictionary: 1) Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836): ideology is the science of ideas; 2) ideology is ideal or abstract speculation and unpractical or visionary theorizing;
2. De Tracy (a positive connotation): ideas originate in sensory experience and their origin can be studied scientifically; ideology is a democratic philosophy, a defense of popular intelligence;
3. Napoleon Bonaparte (a negative connotation): Ideologues are metaphysical factions, dangerous daydreamers, windbags who have already fought the existing authorities;
4. Why has Napoleon’s negative connotation of ideology persist?
5. Marx: 1) like Napoleon criticized the Ideologues’ idealism and associated ideology with metaphysics; 2) unlike Napoleon, Marx traced the origins of ideology to the class conflicts that underlie even democratic politics; 3) Marx’s concept of three basic characteristics of ideologies includes social, functional, and illusory forms of consciousness; 4) Marx points out that societies develop belief systems that fit their historical context; 5) Ideologies function for the ruling class as legitimating illusions; 6) Ideology obstructs democracy by preventing subordinated classes from understanding the sources of their oppression; 7) the difference between political and human emancipation;
6. Freud: Society provides substitute gratifications in order to compensate for the suppressed id: ideologies not only discipline individuals but also provide a largely unconscious sense of security;
7. ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM. Freud: people do not really want to be free; taking responsibility for themselves is too frightening for them; Erich Fromm: perceived threats to psychological security systems can also explain the emergence of political violence;
8. Karl Mannheim: ideology―involves attempts by a ruling class to prevent its own demise; utopia―values what does not yet exist and promotes the changes necessary to create it;
9. The functions of IDEOLOGY: 1) legitimate political systems; 2) help to socialize individuals; 3) mobilize people; 4) fills the need for values in politics, especially democratic politics (why?);
10. Studying ideologies increases citizen’s ability to asses competing truth claims and make informed choices among them;
11. Love: The source of moral standards today is, at best, citizens’ considered, collective judgment (let’s question this assertion from a libertarian perspective);
12. Habermas: 1) anyone should be able to raise any issue for discussion; 2) during discussions, everyone should speak sincerely and seek understanding; 3) any decision reached (and here is the kick) should be applied equally to all;
13. Love’s critique to Habermas: without equal educational opportunities and some economic security, many individuals lack the ability, energy and resources to debate political issues.

Political Theory and Political Ideology
1. Similarities: both involve contemplation, organization of ideas, and demonstration;
2. Differences: only ideology incites people into action;
3. Ideologies are highly simplified, and even distorted version of the original philosophical doctrines;
4. David Ingersoll and Donald Matthews: unlike philosophy, ideology oversimplifies in order to motivate action;
5. The ideology/philosophy distinction raises the issue of the relationship between theory and practice;
6. Daniel Bell: Ideology is the conversion of ideas into social levers;
7. Roy Macridis: history involves a dialectic between philosophical ideas and social needs. An ideology emerges when they converge and, by mediating between theory and practice, plays a crucial role in political change;
8. Robert Haber: simplification may be necessary, but demagoguery, dogmatism, and dehumanization are not, as long as the translation process involves democratic institutions and procedures;
9. Richard Ashcraft: political theorists link historically-rooted political theory with ideology, and great political theory with trans-historical philosophy (philosophical arguments are above politics, outside history or both).
10. Love: approaching philosophy as a form of ideology may contribute to the creation of a more democratic political theory;
11. Benjamin Barber: we need a philosophy that renders judgment in political terms rather than reducing politics to the terms of formal reason;
12. William Connolly: responsible ideology is one in which a serious and continuing effort is made to elucidate publicly all the factors involved in its formulation and in which a similar effort is made to test the position at a strategic point by all available means;
13. Michael Freeden: the first question the student of ideologies needs to pose does not relate to the qualitative substance of the ideology, to its ethical stance or its intellectual weight. It is rather: what has to hold in order for this utterance to make sense/be right for its producers and consumers?

How to study ideologies
Love’s three reasons for studying political ideologies:
1. To understand modern politics;
2. To discus and choose among political values;
3. To democratize political theory;
This suggests that ideologies are best studied in relation to their historical and sociopolitical contexts;
Two important relationships that need attention:
1. Words versus concepts;
2. Philosophical meaning versus popular meaning;
Unlike philosophy that thrives on the constant redefinition of concepts, ideologies aim at cementing the word-concept relationship; by determining the meaning of a concept, they can then attach a single meaning to a political term;
There are at least two ways to understand the structure of ideologies:
1. Linear: ideologies are presented as belief systems with a causal structure; they are composed of the following features: 1) a critique of society as it presently exists; 2) a vision of a better sociopolitical order; 3) a strategy that suggests how to get from here to there;
2. Morphological: construing ideologies as mutually defining clusters and concepts; liberalism’s core is democracy with freedom and equality among its peripheral concepts; Freeden’s four “P”s of ideological composition: proximity (concepts define each other), priority (peripheral concepts orbit a central core), permeability (how ideologies intersect and overlap), and proportionality (the relative space ideologies give particular issues);
How to study ideology:
1. As a separate knower;
2. As a connected knower.