POLITICAL & ECONOMIC

IDEOLOGIES
 

It is common for political thinkers and writers, especially in comparative

politics, to claim that one of the easiest ways of differentiating the nature of
governments is to identify the nature or type of the ideologies they adopted,
that is, the differences in the nature of governments in the world are usually
associated with the differences in their ideologies. For example, the former
USSR, CHINA, VIETNAM, CUBA and NORTH KOREA adhere to Socialism
and Communism as having a different political system as compared to US,
GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, CANADA, and the PHILIPPINES because of
their adherence to Democracy and Capitalism.

In this Chapter we will study the nature, the function and structure of major
political and economic ideologies.

Defining Ideologies

Heywood defines Ideology as “ a coherent set of ideas that provides the basis
for organized political action, where this is intended to Preserve, modify, or
overthrow the existing system of power.” 

This definition provides us with three important ideas that applies to all sorts
of ideology:

1.

Ideology is a coherent set of ideas – not just a mere collection of

statements or philosophical articulations. 

2.
3.

Ideology provides a basis for political action – put in other way,

ideologies is action oriented, it primarily arouse people who hold them
into a purposeful action. And this political action is geared to:

4.
5.

Ideology is used to Preserve, modify, or overthrow the existing system

of power.

6.
As such, we can say that all or any ideology:

1.

Situates people within a particular social environment.

2.
3.

Is both idea and action oriented. 

4.
5.

Offers an account of the existing order.

6.
7.

Provides the model of a designed future.

8.

1.

Explains how political change can be best achieved. 

2.

In the next sections we shall look into these claims much closer, focusing on
the structure and function of political and economic ideologies. Then towards
the concluding section, we will consider some major types of ideologies which
helped form the world as we know it today.

STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF IDEOLOGY

There are three major structural elements of Ideology: section, Philosophy,

Program and Propaganda.

Philosophy: “What is to be desired”. 

The philosophical component of Ideology enables Ideologies to formulate

desirable goals based on some Philosophical notions. As such, Ideology is
not Philosophy - rather it makes an open or hidden appeal to Philosophy.
Ideology takes side on the issues that have divided philosophers over the
centuries – it presents those that best serve its overall Intention. Philosophy is
thus employed to provide a rational basis for those things that are proposed to
be achieved. The Philosophical component of ideology involves evaluation of
the present system of things, whether it is desirable or not. The following are
examples of philosophical questions which interests ideology:

a.

What is justice, and what is a just society? (For Marx, justice follows
the maxim each according to Ability, each according to Needs. For
Smith, each according to his contribution)

b.
c.

Does history have a meaning, or is it a vast mass of separate events?

(For Marx it does)

d.
e.

Does God exist? (For Lenin it does not, God is just an opium of the
people)

f.

 Is the world material or Spiritual (For Marx its material)

However, Ideology seldom employ Philosophical notions completely, neither it

uses them clearly and carefully. The reason for this is simple – the complexity
and technicality of Philosophical concepts will bore most of the audience away
an ideology is suppose to reach. To be politically effective, an ideology must
unavoidably abridge, simplify, translate, and thus transform the relevant
philosophical notions.

Program: “What is to be done”

 Whereas Philosophical component vaguely suggests desirable goals, the

Program must spell out more specifically the things that must be done.
Whereas 

Philosophical component evaluates if something is desirable or undesirable,

Program judges if something should be preserved or changed. 

The Program component effectively serves as the connecting link between

the Philosophical component and the highly concrete imagery of the
propaganda component.

Propaganda: “How to provoke Action”

 Of the three structural component of Ideology, Propaganda is the most
elusive. It is directly linked to the mobilization function (i.e. arousing people to
political action). The concept of Propaganda could either be perceived as
traditional or modern:

a.

Traditional Propaganda – Propaganda referring both to a process and

means to modify ideas, to change adherence to a doctrine, to lead
people to a choice, or to transform opinion.

b.

a.

Modern Propaganda – Propaganda as a means to provoke action, to

make individual cling irrationally to a process of action, to loosen
reflexes of people, to arouse in people an active and mythical belief. 

b.

paganda is usually done by employing any or all of the following means: 

a.

Rational and Intellectual Discourse;

b.
c.

Exaggerations and Crude oversimplifications;

d.
e.

Hypercharged Rhetorics; and 

f.
g.

Mythic Themes

h.
 FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF IDEOLOGY

We now try to look closely at what ideologies actually do in political life.

Ideology has three major Functions: interpretation, legitimization and
mobilization.

Interpretation

Ideology functions as a set of guides or standard by which people interpret or

give meaning to the political world. It helps people to see some political
objects more clearly than they might otherwise. However, what a person can
see and appreciate in the political world depends on what ideology he
believes in. Ideology helps us appreciate some objects and obscure others.
As different ideologies understandably provide their own peculiar insights and
blind spots. Ideologies are like eye glasses: the right prescription can improve
our vision 

considerably, where as the wrong lenses can reduce us to near blindness

(Ibid. p.8).

Legitimization

 Another function of Ideology is the legitimization of political regimes. Ideology

provides rational basis as to why people should support a particular regime or
why laws, rules and regulations should be followed. It justifies the existence
and explains the rightfulness of a particular system of power. Though
legitimization or legitimation is only one of the many ways to command
obedience, for instance other ways may include the use of brute force,
legitimization is perceived to be the most effective and the most comfortable
means in ensuring the cooperation of the people. According to Gaetano
Mosca (1958: p.52): 

“No political class, however constituted, ever

admits that it commands for the sole reason that it
is composed of elements which are – or have been
to that historical point – fittest to govern. It always
finds justification of its power in an abstract
principle, in a formula…” 

Mosca called this formula Political Formula. Political formula serves both to
explain and justify the rule of the ruling class, the change in the political
formula indicates the change in the actual composition of the ruling class.
However, it should be pointed out that the political formula is not above the
ruling class, rather the ruling class adopts the political formula that is most
useful to it. 

Mobilization

The third function of Ideology is Mobilization. Generally, Mobilization refers to

the process of inspiring people into action or making people act in ways it is
expected or intended for the achievement of something. We noted that
mobilization function is directly linked with propaganda. As such, ideology has
a mobilizing force that works both in elite and mass level. There are two
classes of people which Ideology can mobilize. 

a.

Intellectual Elites – the intellectuals who feel alienated to the status

quo. They are the principled people who are prone to think of
themselves as the custodian of moral, social and religious values,
which the existing system and its ideology are perceived to be
violating. 

b.

a.

The Masses – the “man in the street” who are deeply frustrated
because of their unachieved aspirations and the state of their material
condition. The frustrated Masses do not want complex analyses or 

b.

sophisticated diagnoses of their plight , they want simple answers to

what is wrong as well as short-order solutions to their woes
(Haggopian: 1993, p.10). Ideologies mobilize the masses by fanning
this discontent into full conflagrations.

SITUATING POLITICAL & ECONOMIC IDEOLOGIES

The most familiar model in studying ideologies is the Linear Spectrum. It

locates political beliefs at some point between two extremes, the far left and
the far right. Terms such as “left wing” or “right wing” are widely used to sum
up a person’s political beliefs or position, and groups of people are referred to
collectively as “the left”, “the right”, and indeed “the center”.

Left   Center   Right

  
Communism Socialism Liberalism Conservatism Fascism

The linear spectrum is commonly understood to reflect different political

values or contrasting views about economic policy. Below is the summary of
the political values and economic views that are commonly expressed by
“Left” and “Right” Ideologies and ideologues:

POLITICAL VALUES
 LEFT RIGHT
Committed to Equality Reject Equality
    Equality is desirable and possible to   Equality is undesirable and
achieve impossible
Revolutionary Reactionary
   Change the system    Preserve the status quo

 
ECONOMIC VIEWS

LEFT RIGHT

State regulated/ plannedFree-market economy

Economy

Protection of Right to private

Abolition of Private property property

The linear spectrum also locates the position of the ideologues (i.e. believers
of a particular ideology) as to their proximity to the center, to the extreme
Right and extreme Left of the spectrum. Each of these classes of people
manifests certain values.

Left     Right

Radical Liberal Moderate Conservatives Reactionary

Radical – Associated with violence; characterized by an extreme political and

social dissatisfaction; Progressive; It favors drastic and immediate change; it
believes that man are capable of changing the present system and new
system will be much better than that which is desired to be overthrown.

Liberals – Dissatisfied and desires change and reform but not through
violence; It believes that humans are capable of changing social institutions; it
believes in Human Rationality; it is committed to equality.

Moderate – Satisfied in the existing order of things but open to possibility of

change; it believes that if change is to be done, it should be gradual and slow
so as not to disrupt social order.

Conservative – Satisfied in the existing order of things and closed to the

possibility of change; It doubts human rationality and capability to devise and
construct better alternative to the existing order; It believes that man is
selfish. 

Reactionary – Associated with violence; characterized by an extreme political

and social dissatisfaction with existing order of things; Retrogressive; It
desires the return of the former or old value systems. 
 Some Notes on the Linear Spectrum

The single most important weakness of Linear Spectrum is its attempt to

reduce politics to a single dimension, and suggests that political views can be
classified according to only one criterion. This explains for most of its
inconsistencies. Fascist regimes, for instance, practices state control and
economic management, hence it should be placed in the far left, but Fascist
regimes are reactionary, hence it should be placed in the far right. In cases as
this, where should such a regime be placed? Linear spectrum does not
provide an answer.

MAJOR TYPES OF POLITICAL & ECONOMIC IDEOLOGIES

DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a form of government in which a substantial proportion of the

citizenry directly or indirectly participates in ruling the state. It is thus distinct
from governments controlled by a particular social class or group or by a
single person. In a direct democracy citizens vote on laws in an assembly, as
they did in ancient Greek city-states. In an indirect democracy citizens elect
officials to represent them in government; representation is typical of most
modern democracies. Today the essential features of democracy, as
understood in the Western world, are that citizens be sufficiently free in
speech and assembly, for example to form competing political parties and that
voters be able to choose among the candidates of these parties in regularly
held elections.

Origins of Democracy

The term democracy is derived from the Greek words demos ("the people")
and kratia ("rule"). The first democratic forms of government developed in the
Greek city-states during the 6th century BC. Although demos is sometimes
said to mean just "the poor," Aristotle's Constitution of Athens shows that in
Athens all citizens, rich and poor, participated fully in government; minors,
women, slaves, and foreigners, however perhaps 90 percent of the population
were not citizens. The Following are its primary Characteristics: 

a) Representation: Government as a representative body that is, a body elected

by the entire adult population on the basis of one person, one vote; 

b) Popular Sovereignty: John Locke, articulated a theory of government that was

to be seminal in democratic development i.e. end of government and right to
rebel (See Chapter 4, Section 4.8.2) Locke’s idea of popular sovereignty was
taken a step further by Jean Jacques Rousseau who argued that the only
legitimate state was one based on the "general will" of the people; 

c) The Ideal of Justice: Democracy has attracted support from the time of ancient
Greece until today because it represents an ideal of justice as well as a form
of government. The ideal is the belief that freedom and equality are good in
themselves and that democratic participation in ruling enhances human
dignity. Political participation encourages the fair treatment of a minority; 

a.

Freedom and Faction: The vote itself is not enough to guarantee that
oppression will be eliminated. For participation to be an effective 

b.

method or a feasible ideal, it must be accompanied by political liberty.

As James Madison wrote in The Federalist, "Liberty is to faction as air
is to fire." The freedoms that promote faction are important, not only as
high moral ideals, but also as a method of realizing democracy.

Difficulties of Democracy

Democracies are not easy to establish or to maintain. Because two sets

of rulers are required, one to govern and the other to take over when the
first set loses an election, democracy is expensive. Some societies
seem too poor to afford the luxury of leaders-in-reserve. In the modern
world, moreover, democracy requires almost universal literacy, which is
also expensive. The worst defect of democracy is that politicians are
under constant pressure from the lobbyists of special-interest groups to
support particular public policies. Because their future depends on
winning elections, and because elections are won by attracting marginal
voters, politicians seek the support of marginal voters who belong to
such groups by promising to vote for legislation they favor. This
weights the legislative process in favor of interest groups, especially the
well organized and well funded. The sum of the benefits granted to these
groups may be more than the society can afford. These kinds of
expenses have contributed to the downfall of democratic governments
as has happened in various regions in the second half of the 20th
century.

Democracy & Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that usually goes with Democracy (but this
is not a necessary relationship – Capitalism, as demonstrated years before
WWII, could flourish in Fascist and Nazist regimes) in which the means of
production are privately owned. Business organizations produce goods for a
market guided by the forces of supply and demand. Capitalism requires a
financial system that enables business firms to borrow large sums of money,
or capital, to maintain and expand production. Underlying capitalism is the
presumption that private enterprise is the most efficient way to organize
economic activity. Adam Smith expressed this idea in his Wealth of Nations
(1776), extolling the free market in which the businessman is "led by an
invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." The
marketplace is the center of the capitalist system. It determines what will be
produced, who will produce it, and how the rewards of the economic process
will be distributed. From a political standpoint, the market system has two
distinct advantages over other ways of organizing the economy: (a) no person
or combination of persons can control the marketplace, which means that
power is diffuse and cannot be monopolized by a party or a clique; (b) the
market system tends to reward efficiency with profits and to punish
inefficiency with losses. Economists often speak of capitalism as a free-
market system ruled by competition. But capitalism in this ideal sense cannot
be found anywhere in the world. The economic systems operating in Western
countries today are mixtures of free competition and governmental control.

COMMUNISM

The term communism is generally applied to the Marxist-Leninist political and

socioeconomic doctrines. This system, associated with the collective
ownership of the means of production, central economic planning, and rule by
a single political party. We will include in this section the basic idea of
Maoism. 

MARXISM

Marxism is a body of social, political, and economic thought derived

from the writings of Karl Marx and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels. At
the center of Marx's work is his analysis of capitalism: how it arose, how
it works (for whom it works better and for whom worse), and where it is
likely to lead. Concentrating on the social and economic relations in
which people earn their livings, Marx saw behind capitalism's legal
facade a struggle of two main classes: the capitalists, who own the
productive resources, and the workers, or proletariat, who must work for
wages in order to survive. The main theories that make up this analysis
is the theory of alienation, the labor theory of value, and the materialist
conception of history must all be understood with this focus in mind.
Even Marx's vision of socialism emerges from his study of capitalism,
for socialism is the unrealized potential inherent in capitalism itself for a
more rational and egalitarian social order in which people can develop
more fully their distinctively human qualities.
On Alienation: Marx's theories about capitalism are best understood as
answers to his pointed questions about its nature, effects, and
development. How do the ways and conditions in which people earn
their living affect their bodies, minds, and daily lives? In the theory of
alienation Marx gives his answer. The people who do the work in
capitalism own none of the means (machines and raw materials, for
example) that they use in their work. These are owned by the capitalists,
to whom workers must sell their "labor power,"or ability to do work, in
return for a wage. This system of labor displays four relations that lie at
the core of Marx's theory of alienation. The worker is alienated from his
or her productive activity, playing no part in deciding what to do or how
to do it. The worker is alienated from the product of that activity, having
no control over what is made or what becomes of it. The worker is
alienated from other human beings, with competition and mutual
indifference replacing most forms of cooperation. Finally, 
the worker is alienated from the distinctive potential inherent in the
notion of human being.

On the Theory of Value: It is primarily concerned with the more basic

problem of why goods have prices at all. The slave owner takes by force
what slaves produce. The feudal lord claims as a right some part of what
is produced by the serfs. Only in capitalism is the distribution of what is
produced a function of markets and prices. Marx's explanation of this
anomaly concentrates on the separation of the worker from his or her
means of production and the sale of his or her labor power that this
separation makes necessary. As a result of this separation, all the
things that workers produce become available for exchange, indeed are
produced with this exchange in mind. "Value" is the general social form
taken by all the products of alienated labor (labor to which the four
relations of alienated labor apply). Such products could only sell (have
"exchange values") and serve (have "use values") in ways that express
and contribute to this alienation. Surplus value, the third aspect of
value, is the difference between the amount of exchange and use value
created by workers and the amount of value returned to them as wages.
The capitalist's control over this surplus is the basis of their power over
the workers and the rest of society. Marx's labor theory of value also
provides a detailed account of the struggle between capitalists and
workers over the size of the surplus value. Because of competition
among capitalists, workers are constantly being replaced by machinery,
enabling and requiring capitalists to extract ever-greater amounts of
surplus value from workers remaining. Paradoxically, the amount of
surplus value is also the source of capitalism's greatest weakness.
Because only part of their product is returned to them as wages, the
workers, as consumers, cannot buy a large portion of what they
produce. Under pressure from the constant growth of the total product,
the capitalists periodically fail to find new markets to take up the slack.
This leads to crises of "overproduction," capitalism's classic
contradiction, in which people are forced to live on too little because
they have produced too much. 

On Materialistic  Conception of History: The actual course of history is

determined by class struggle. According to Marx, each class is defined
chiefly by its relation to the productive process and has objective
interests rooted in that relation. The capitalists' interests lie in securing
their power and expanding profits. Workers, on the other hand, have
interests in higher wages, safer working conditions, shorter hours, job
security, and because it is required to realize other interests a new
distribution of power. The class struggle involves everything that these
two major classes do to promote their incompatible interests at each
other's expense. In this battle, which rages throughout society, the
capitalists are aided by their wealth, their control of the state, and their
domination over other institutions schools, media, churches that guide
and distort people's thinking. On the workers' side are their sheer
numbers, their experience of cooperation however alienated while at
work, trade unions, working-class political parties (where they exist),
and the growing contradictions within capitalism that make present
conditions increasingly irrational. Marx believed that once most workers
recognized their interests and became "class conscious," the overthrow
of capitalism would proceed as quickly and democratically as the nature
of capitalist 

opposition allowed. The socialist society that would emerge out of the
revolution would develop the full productive potential inherited from
capitalism through democratic planning on behalf of social needs. The
final goal, toward which socialist society would constantly build, is the
human one of abolishing alienation. Marx called the attainment of this
goal communism.

Leninism

Lenin was not only a revolutionist but a prolific writer who made important
additions to the theory of Marxism and created a doctrine for professional
revolutionists that gained considerable influence in the economically
backward areas of the world. In his pamphlet What Is to Be Done? (1902) he
called for an elitist, disciplined party of professional revolutionists to lead the
working class toward communism. The principles of "the leading role of the
party" and "democratic centralism" meaning an almost military organizational
discipline within the party were supposed to be practiced by all Communist
parties. Lenin also preached flexibility in strategy and tactics, by which he
meant a willingness to adapt party programs so as to enlist the support of the
peasantry and oppressed national minorities without giving up the goal of
communism. 

Maoism
 
 Although the Chinese Communist party gave lip service to the doctrines of
Lenin and Stalin, its Marxism was shaped by its own unique experience and
blended with the ideas of Mao. Mao saw humans as engaged in a permanent
struggle against nature. Society was driven by contradictions between classes
(antagonistic contradictions) and between groups (non-antagonistic
contradictions). The antagonistic contradictions could be solved by revolution,
but after the revolution it was necessary to work out the no
 n-antagonistic contradictions that existed among the people and even within
the party. Mao also believed that the revolution did not end when the
Communists came to power; it had to be waged continually against vestiges
of the old culture and against bureaucratic habits. Under Mao, China was
subjected to startling shifts in policy that began with the elite and were carried
downward through all parts of society.

Communism & Socialism

 The term socialism is commonly used to refer both to an ideology: a
comprehensive set of beliefs or ideas about the nature of human society and
its future desirable state and to a state of society based on that ideology.
Socialists have always claimed to stand above all for the values of equality,
social justice, cooperation, progress, and individual freedom and happiness,
and they have generally sought to realize these values by the abolition of the
private-enterprise 

economy and its replacement by "public ownership," a system of social or

state control over production and distribution. Methods of transformation
advocated by 
socialists range from constitutional change to violent revolution. Some
scholars believe that the basic principles of socialism were derived from the
philosophy of Plato, the teachings of the Hebrew prophets, and some parts of
the New Testament (the Sermon on the Mount, for example). Modern socialist
ideology, however, is essentially a joint product of the 1789 French Revolution
and the Industrial Revolution in England (i.e. the word socialist first occurred
in an English journal in 1827). 

Varieties of Socialism

The following are forms of Socialism: 

a) Marxism: Developed by the German thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
and has been generally regarded as the most sophisticated and influential
doctrine of socialism. Marx, who was influenced in his youth by German
idealist philosophy and the humanism of Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, believed
that human beings, and particularly workers, were "alienated" in modern
capitalist society 

b) Moderate Socialism (a.k.a. social democracy, Fabianism): These moderates

sought to achieve socialism by parliamentary means and by appealing
deliberately to the middle class. It did not, like Marxism, look toward the
complete abolition of private property and the disappearance of the state but
instead envisaged socialism more as a form of society in which full democratic
control would be exercised over wealth, and production would be controlled
by a group of responsible experts working in the interests of the whole
community; 

c) Christian Socialism: Christian Socialist in the main supported moderate social

democracy, emphasizing what they understood as the central message of the
church in social ethics, notably the values of cooperation, brotherhood,
simplicity of tastes, and the spirit of self-sacrifice; d) Radical Socialism: Under
this category is Anarchism: whose immediate aim is the abolition of the State.
Anarchists, influenced mainly by the ideas of the Frenchman Pierre Joseph
Proudhon and later of the Russian Mikhail Bakunin were intent on
immediately overthrowing the capitalist state and replacing it with small
independent communities. Unlike the Marxists, whom they bitterly criticized,
anarchists were against the formation of socialist parties, and they repudiated
parliamentary politics as well as the idea of revolutionary dictatorship. 
 ANARCHISM

Anarchism is an ideology that regards abolition of government as the

necessary precondition for a free and just society. The term itself comes from
the Greek words meaning "without a ruler." Anarchism rejects all forms of
hierarchical authority, social and economic as well as political. What
distinguishes it from other ideologies, however, is the central importance it
attaches to the state. To anarchists, the state is a wholly artificial and
illegitimate institution, the bastion of privilege and exploitation in the modern
world. The immediate objective of Anarchism is the annihilation of the state
and of all authority imposed "from above downward." Once liberated from
political oppression, society would spontaneously rebuild itself "from below
upward." A multitude of grass-roots organizations would spring up to produce
and distribute economic goods and to satisfy other social needs.

The state, with its impersonal laws and coercive bureaucracies, would be
supplanted by a dense web of self-governing associations and free
federations. Anarchists had an enduring faith in the natural solidarity and
social harmony of human beings. They believed that the creation of the future
society should be entrusted to the free play of popular instincts, and any
attempt by anarchists themselves to offer more than technical assistance
would impose a new form of authority. They tended to concentrate, therefore,
on the task of demolishing the existing state order rather than on social
blueprints of the future. While battling the established order, anarchists also
battled the alternatives proposed by liberalism and socialism. Like Marxism,
anarchism was anti-capitalist and scorned liberalism's dedication to political
liberty on the grounds that only the propertied classes could afford to enjoy it.
Anarchists rejected with equal vehemence, however, the Marxist "dictatorship
of the proletariat," the idea of capturing and using the capitalist state to
achieve a classless society. Political institutions were inherently corrupting,
they believed, and therefore even the most selfless revolutionaries would
therefore inevitably succumb to the joys of power and privilege. Instead of the
state "withering away," as the Marxists anticipated, it would simply perpetuate
a new bureaucratic elite. 

Because anarchism regarded doctrinal and organizational discipline as

contradictions of its principles, it gave rise to a wide variety of interpretations: 

a) Anarchist-communists: shared many of the collectivist principles of socialism

but sought to realize them in autonomous local communities; 
b) Anarcho-syndicalism: was an adaptation of anarchist ideas to modern
industrial conditions. It advocated the running of factories by the workers
themselves rather than by owners or managers, with trade unions (in French,
syndicats) forming the building blocks of a regenerated society; 
c) Christian anarchism: formulated by the novelist Count Leo Tolstoi which
rejected the state on religious grounds, and 
d) Anarchist-individualists: who proclaimed the sovereignty of the individual
personality.Contrary to widespread belief, terrorism was never an integral part
of anarchist theory or practice. Some anarchists, however, did engage in what
they called "propaganda by the deed," acts of terror and assassination against
state officials and property owners.