IDEOLOGY AS

A CONCEPT
BAHCESEHIR UNIVERSITY
POL4311 – POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
WEEK 2
DAMLA B. AKSEL
 PLAN

01 02 03
Seeing and Feeling
2

Origins & Development Towards a Definition Ideology

04 05 06
In this class… For Ideology Geeks Discuss
 PART 1

ORIGINS & DEVELOPMENT

 4

ENLIGHTENMENT FRENCH REVOLUTION

 5

Antoine Destutt de Tracy

Ideologue who first used the concept
6
FRENCH REVOLUTION Napoleon Bonaparte
 8

A new science of ideas? OR Unwanted interference of doctrinaire professors to politics?

 9

OR an unrealistic utopia?
 1
0

The ideas of the ruling class are in every eopch the

ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material
force of 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, so
thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who
lack the means of mental production are subject to it.

-- The German Ideology (1846), Marx & Engels

1
1
 1
2

Marx & Engels

• Ideology & class
• Ideas of ruling class
• “Manufacturing history”

Causes of Ideologies
• Marketable ideas
• Desire to power
• Alieanation
 1
3

Karl Marx
• Commodity Fetishism

The Tribune of the Uffizi (1772–1778)

by Johann Zoffany
 1
4

Şerif Mardin
False consciousness
in the Ottoman konak
(mansion) life
 15

Antonio Gramsci
● Ideological hegemony
● Culture, civil society, non-state
 Gramsci’s civil society
◉ When a particular social group becomes hegemonic, it not only
acquires control of the politico-juridical apparatus of the state, it
also permeates the institutions of the civil society – especially
the cultural sphere.
◉ Political society and civil society are an integral, single entity.
The historical unity of the ruling classes occurs in the state, and their history is
essentially the history of states and of groups of states. But one must not think
that this unity is purely juridical and political, although that form of unity has
its own importance which is not merely formal. The basic historical unity, in its
concreteness, is the outcome of the organic relations between the state or
political society and "civil society." The subaltern classes, by definition, are not
unified and they cannot become unified until they are able to become a "state":
ANTONIO GRAMSCI their history, therefore, is intertwined with that of civil society, it is a
"disjointed" and discontinuous part of the history of civil society and hence of
the history of states or groups of states. (Prison Notebooks)
16
 Gramsci’s civil society
◉ Position of ruling class is more secure when it couples
dominance of political society with hegemony in civil society.
◉ And the subaltern social groups can struggle against the
domination of the few by forming counterhegemonic
institutions, which can take place only in civil society.
◉ Therefore civil society is both hegemonic and counter-
hegemonic. It is the creative space, where subaltern groups,
encouraged by intellectuals, can form a historic bloc, and
engage in a counter-hegemonic war of position to alter society
◉ For the “subaltern element” to “no longer [be] a thing
[objectified, reified] but an historical person” they need to be “an
ANTONIO GRAMSCI agent, necessarily active and taking the initiative” (Gramsci,
1971, pp. 144, 332–337).
17
 18

Louis Althusser
• Repressive vs. Ideological State Apparatuses
• State Apparatuses: government, administration,
army, police, courts, prisons etc.
• Idelogical State Apparatuses: religious, family,
legal, political, trade union, communications,
cultural
 1
9

Impact of Freud & modern psychology

2
0
 21

According to Mannheim, ideology had two dimensions:

(1) social: there are diverse opinions among different social groups and in their position within
social structures
(2) psychological: integration of unconscious assumptions that guide human thinking and
action

Social groups operate in the basis of irrational, mythical, shared rites, rituals, prejudices &
myths.
Therefore it was more than an instrument of manipulation, as argued by Marx & Engels. It
was Mannheim who argued that it was possible to study objectively the ideologies and
knowledge, which were always changing and dynamic depending on the context.
 PART 2

TOWARDS A
DEFINITION
 23

ACCORDING TO FREEDEN (2003), A POLITICAL

IDEOLOGY IS:
• Is a set of ideas, beliefs, opinions and values that:
• 1. exhibit a recurring pattern
• 2. are held by significant groups
• 3. compete over providing and controlling plans for public policy
• 4. do so with the aim of justifying, contesting or changing the social and
political arrangements and processes of a political community
A RECURRING PATTERN
HELD BY SIGNIFICANT
GROUPS
COMPETING OVER
PUBLIC POLICY
“Ideologies compete over the control of political language as well as competing
over plans for public policy; indeed, their competition over plans for public
policy is primarily conducted through their competition over the control of
political language.” (Freeden 2003: 55)
AIM TO SHAPE KEY POLITICAL
DECISION MAKERS AND PUBLIC
OPINION
Soviet Union
Drive away the
bureaucrats from the
state apparatus! 1979
WHAT IS,
WHAT SHOULD BE
& HOW TO DO IT
 34

ACCORDING TO HEYWOOD
(2017), A POLITICAL IDEOLOGY:
• Is a more or less 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. All ideologies have the following
features. They:
• 1. offer an account of the existing order,
usually in the form of a “world view”
• 2. advance a model of a desired future, a
vision of the “good society”
• 3. explain how political change can and
should be brought about – how to get from
(a) to (b)
 35

What ”is” & what “should be”

● Utopia: notion first used by Thomas More,
compounded from Greek words for “not” (ou) and
“place” (topos), meaning nowhere. A second
meaning is attached to it by More, who pointed
out to the similarity of utopia to eutopia (Greek –
eu, meaning “good”, ”well”). So it describes a non-
existent society that is viewed to be considerably
better than contemporary society.
 36

Political philosophy vs. political ideology

IDEOLOGICAL
FAMILIES:
“CLASSICAL” & NEW
40
 41

● Earliest ideological traditions – liberalism,

conservatism, socialism – developed as an
attempt to shape the industrial society in the
18th & 19th centuries:
● * Liberalism as the ideology of the rising middle
class
● * Conservatism as the ideology of the
aristocracy or nobility
● * Socialism as the ideology of the working class
 42

Soviet propaganda poster from 1919, 'either death to capitalism, or death under the foot of capitalism’.
43
 44

THE END OF IDEOLOGY?

45
46
47
 PART 3

SEEING AND FEELING

IDEOLOGY
4
9
 5
0

”To do a good job in epidemic prevention and

hygiene work is concrete patriotic behavior in the
battle to smash American imperialist germ warfare!”
Patriotic Health Campaign, PRC (1952), by Zhang
Wenxin
FOR OTHERS: https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/4uuy0v/now_he_understands_the_game_socialist_political/
 5
1

The Soyuz-Apollo joint

space project of 1975 was
used as a huge propaganda
event by the Soviets,
claiming the USSR had
reached parity with the US
not only in global politics and
the arms race, but also in
cool high technology (from
Reddit).
FOR OTHERS: https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/4uuy0v/now_he_understands_the_game_socialist_political/
 5
2

“Too Many Volunteers”. China is breaking

free from the clutches of the Russian bear,
while Germany and England plead with
Russia not to be so greedy and share with
them. Uncle Sam is sitting on the fence,
taking a wait-and-see attitude. (USA, Puck
magazine, 1900) (from Reddit)

FOR OTHERS: https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/4uuy0v/now_he_understands_the_game_socialist_political/

 5
3

New! Improved! Anarchy (1981)

FOR OTHERS: https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/4uuy0v/now_he_understands_the_game_socialist_political/

 5
4

WATCH
 PART 4

IN THIS CLASS...
5
6
5
7
5
8
 PART 5

FOR IDEOLOGY GEEKS

 6
READ 0
 PART 6

DISCUSS
 DISCUSS 62

● Watch “V for Vendetta” and Discuss:

● Do you agree with Marxist theorists that
ideologies are tools held by the ruling classes, used
for the purpose of retaining their power?
 6
3

DISCUSS
https://theconversation.com/apollo-missions-pushed-forward-a-one-planet-ideology-but-will-this-ever-replace-nationalism-in-politics-120637
 6
4

DISCUSS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yOoOL9PC-o
 SOURCES
65

Here are the sources that were used in this presentation. You can check them out to learn more:
● Heywood, A. (2017). Political ideologies: An introduction. Macmillan International Higher Education.
● Freeden, M. (2003). Ideology: A very short introduction (Vol. 95). Oxford University Press.
● Freeden, M., Sargent, L. T., & Stears, M. (Eds.). (2013). The Oxford handbook of political ideologies. OUP Oxford.
● Mardin, Ş. (2016). İdeoloji. İletişim Yayınları.
● Heywood, A. (2017). Political ideologies: An introduction. Macmillan International Higher Education.