Features of Ideology

Two features :human nature & freedom

 Human Nature
• basic human drives, motivations, limitations,
and possibilities
• the “nature” of human beings------ to compete
with one another --------acquiring the greatest
possible share of scarce resources
• “naturally” inclined to cooperate with each
other and to share what they have with others
• a classical liberal or a contemporary
libertarian-------human beings are “naturally”
competitive and acquisitive
• A communist------- competitiveness are
“unnatural” and nasty vices
• Nazis -------- “natural” for races to struggle for
dominance & “unnatural” to seek interracial
peace and harmony
• determining how each ideology performs the
functions
• sets the limits of what it considers to be
politically possible
• a communist-------to work to bring about a
classless society
• a conservative------to cherish and defend
traditional social arrangements
• Ideologies--------different views of human
nature
• political ideology-------directly related to its
core conception of human nature
Freedom
 Freedom

• to defend and extend “freedom” (evaluative

and programmatic functions)

• different ideologies define freedom in

different ways

• an essentially contested concept

• being free is a matter of controversy

• MacCallum,----- three features:
(A) an agent,
(B) a barrier or obstacle &
(C) a goal

“A is (or is not) free from (B) to achieve, be or

become (C)”
he or she is free from something and therefore
free to do something
• no one can be free when there are obstacles
that prevent one from doing what one wants
to do

• “freedom” refers to a relationship involving an

agent who is both free from some obstacle
and free to achieve some goal
 B
Obstacle

A C
Agent Goal
 The Agent
• an individual, a class, a group, a nation, a sex, a
race, or even a species
• Fascists (Mussolini & the Italian) ------a nation-
state;
• German fascists (Nazis)-----a race
• feminists ---------the gender identity
freedom
• Liberals-------- freedom of the individual
• Marx and the Marxists-----freedom of a particular
class-the working class
 The Goal
• different kinds of goals
• Nazi-------- “purity” and supremacy of the
white race
• Communist-----the achievement of a classless
communist society
• Liberal------- to in his or her own way, without
undue interference from others
• feminist ------recognizes and rewards the
capacities and worth of women
 Obstacles
• encounter obstacles ------ a variety of forms-
material or physical conditions
• Women---sexism and sexual discrimination
• Communists-------the apathy and “false
consciousness” of the workers & the wealth
and power of the capitalist class
• Nazis ---- Jews, blacks, and other “inferior”
races
• other ideologies as obstacles or barriers
• Fascists---------the liberal(the individual )
• socialist -------- equality as obstacles
• Whatever form -------to overcome or remove
• The more they can remove, the more free
they will be
• a political ideology not free to realize their
goals, then the ideology will call for
action-------- the form of revolution