UNIT II: POLITICAL

IDEOLOGIES

LESSON 1: BASIC TENETS

OF POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
 MEANING OF IDEOLOGY
Ideology is a comprehensive set of
normative beliefs, conscious and
unconscious ideas, that an individual,
group or society has.
An ideology is less encompassing than
the ideas expressed in concepts such as
worldview, imaginary and ontology.
 POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
Political ideologies can be proposed by the
dominant class of society such as the elite
to all members of society as suggested in
some Marxist and critical-theory accounts.
In societies that distinguish between public
and private life, every political or economic
tendency entails ideology, whether or not
it is propounded as an explicit system of
thought.
 Louis Althusser’s
Ideological State
Apparatuses (2010) in
essence define ideology
as “the imaginary
relation to the real
Louis Pierre conditions of existence”.
Althusser
was a French
Marxist
philosopher.
 IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSES
There has been considerable analysis of different
ideological patterns. This kind of analysis has been
described by some as meta-ideology – the study of the
structure, form, and manifestation of ideologies.
Recent analysis tends to posit that ideology is a
coherent system of ideas, relying upon a few basic
assumptions about reality that may or may not have
any factual basis. Ideas become ideologies (that are,
become coherent, repeated patterns) through the
subjective ongoing choices that people make, serving
as the seed around which further thought grows.
According to most recent analysis,
ideologies are neither necessarily right
nor wrong. Believers in ideology range
from passive acceptance through
fervent advocacy to true belief. An
excessive need for certitude lurks at
fundamentalist levels in politics and
religions.
 IDEOLOGIES: MANFRED
STEGER AND PAUL JAMES

Manfred Steger and Paul James which emphasize both the issue of patterning and
contingent claims to truth said, “Ideologies are patterned clusters of normatively
imbued ideas and concepts, including particular representations of power
relations.
These conceptual maps help people navigate the complexity of their political
universe and carry claims to social truth.”
 David W. Minar’s Concept Of
Ideology
Six different ways in which the word “ideology” has been used:
1. As a collection of certain ideas with certain kinds of
content, usually normative;
2. As the form or internal logical structure that ideas have
within a set;
3. By the role in which ideas play in human-social
interaction;
4. By the role that ideas play in the structure of an
organization;
5. As meaning, whose purpose is persuasion; and
6. As the locus (a central or main place) of social
interaction.
 Willard A. Mullins Concept
on Ideology
An ideology should be contrasted with the related
(but different) issues of utopia and historical myth.
An ideology is composed of four basic
characteristics:
it must have power over cognition
it must be capable of guiding one’s evaluations;
it must provide guidance towards action; and
it must be logically coherent.
 Terry Eagleton’s Definitions
Of Ideology:
The process of production of That which offers a position for a
meanings, signs and values in subject;
social life; Forms of thought motivated by
A body of ideas characteristic of social interests;
a particular social group or class; Identity thinking;
Ideas which help to legitimate a Socially necessary illusion;
dominant political power;
The conjuncture of discourse and
False ideas which help to power;
legitimate a dominant political The medium in which conscious
power; social actors make sense of their
Systematically distorted world;
communication; Action-oriented sets of beliefs
 Terry Eagleton’s Definitions Of
Ideology:
the confusion of linguistic and phenomenal reality;
semiotic closure (a sign is anything that
communicates a meaning that is not the sign itself to
the interpreter of the sign.)
the indispensable medium in which individuals live
out their relations to a social structure;
the process whereby social life is converted to a
natural reality.
 Christian Ducker's Ideology
The German philosopher Christian Ducker called for
a “critical reflection of the ideology concept” (2006).
In his work, he strove to bring the concept of
ideology into the foreground, as well as the closely
connected concerns of epistemology and history. In
this work, the term ideology is defined in terms of a
system of presentations that explicitly or implicitly
claim to absolute truth.
 Though the word “ideology” is
most often found in political
discourse, there are many different
kinds of ideology: political, social,
epistemological, ethical, etc.
 ACTIVITY 1
State the meaning of Ideology according
to:
Christian Ducker
Manfred Steger
David W. Minar
Willard A. Mullins
Willard A. Mullins
Terry Eagleton
 ACTIVITY 2
ESSAY:
Why is Ideology a Significant Element in a Political
System?
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