Ideologies
• Liberal means different things in Europe and the US
o Europe: liberal = market liberal
o US: liberal = progressive = lefty
• This lecture: liberal = market liberal
• Why Ideologies?
o Ideologies..map the political and social worlds for us. We simply cannot do
without them because we cannot act without making sense of the worlds we
inhabit. Making sense, let it be said, does not always mean that making good or
right sense. But ideologies will often contain a lot of common sense.” Freeden
I. Ideology
a. An ideology is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides the basis for
organized political action, that is intended to preserve, modify, or overthrow the
existing system of power. All ideologies therefore have the following features.
They:
i. Offer an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a “world
view”
ii. Advance a model of the desired future, a vision of the good society
iii. Explain how political change can and should be brought about – how to
get from A to B.
II. Features of Ideologues
a. Critique of existing order
b. Vision of future society
c. Theory of political change
III. Classical and new ideologies
a. Classical: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, anarchism, fascism
b. New: feminism, ecologism, (postmodernism), religious fundamentalism,
multiculturalism
IV. Classical
a. Liberalism
i. Classical liberalsim
ii. Modern liberalism
b. Conservatism
i. Christian democracy
c. Socialism
i. Social democracy
V. Dimensions of disagreement
a. Human nature, individual, society, equality, private property
VI. Liberty, Equality, Order LEO
a. Widely held political principles
i. Regardless of expressed ideology
ii. Held in different proportion by different ideological adherents
b. Ideologies
i. Liberalism—liberty
ii. Conservatism—order
iii. Socialism—equality
VII. History of Modern Ideologies
a. Classical liberalism rose in the Enlightenment
i. John Locke and Adam smith
b. Conservatism rose in response to the excesses of the French revolution of 1789
i. Edmund burke and Friedrich von Hayek
c. In the 19th century, socialism, communism and anarchism were responses to the
economic distresses brought by industrial capitalism
i. Karl Marx and Lenin
ii. Death of socialism due to collapse of Communism 1989-91
d. Fascism and its most extreme form, Nazism, developed in the early 20th century
as a reaction against the perceived failings of liberalism, conservatism, socialism
and communism
e. New ideologies emerge in response to new needs. Developing out of and in
reaction to liberalism in the late 20th century were:
i. Environmentalism, ecologism
ii. Postmodernism
iii. feminism
VIII. Order of Ideologies: Liberalism first (absolutism), conservatism (French revolution),
nationalism (French occupation) and then socialism (industrial revolution)
