Understanding Political Ideologies
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z z an officially sanctioned set of ideas used to legitimize a political system or regime z z an all-embracing political doctrine that claims a monopoly of truth z z an abstract and highly systematic set of political ideas. The origins of the term are nevertheless clear. The word ‘ideology’ was coined during the French Revolution by Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754–1836), and was first used in public in 1796. For de Tracy, idéologie referred to a new ‘science of ideas’, literally an idea -ology. With a rationalist zeal typical of the Enlightenment , he believed that it was possible to uncover the origins of ideas objectively, and proclaimed that this new science would come to enjoy the same status as established sciences such as biology and zoology. More boldly, since all forms of enquiry are based on ideas, de Tracy suggested that ideology would eventually come to be recognized as the queen of the sciences. However, despite these high expectations, this original meaning of the term has had little impact on later usage, which has been influenced by both Marxist and non-Marxist thinking. Marxist views The career of ideology as a key political term stems from the use made of it in the writings of Karl Marx (see p. 76). Marx’s use of the term, and the interest shown in it by later generations of Marxist thinkers, largely explains the prominence ideology enjoys in modern social and political thought. Yet the meaning Marx ascribed to the concept is very different from the one usually accorded it in mainstream political analysis. Marx used the term in the title of his early work The German Ideology ([1846]1970), written with his lifelong collaborator Friedrich Engels (1820–95). This also contains Marx’s clearest description of his view of ideology: The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch 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 that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. (Marx and Engels, [1846]1970)
Enlightenment: An intellectual movement that reached its height in the eighteenth century and challenged traditional beliefs in religion, politics and learning in general in the name of reason and progress. False consciousness: A Marxist term denoting the delusion and mystification that prevents subordinate classes from recognizing the fact of their own exploitation. Bourgeois ideology: A Marxist term denoting ideas and theories that serve the interests of the bourgeoisie by disguising the contradictions of capitalist society.
Marx’s concept of ideology has a number of crucial features. First, ideology is about delusion and mystification: it perpetrates a false or mistaken view of the world, what Engels later referred to as ‘ false consciousness ’. Marx used ideology as a critical concept, the purpose of which is to unmask a process of systematic mystification. His own ideas he classified as scientific, because they were designed to accurately uncover the workings of history and society. The contrast between ideology and science, between falsehood and truth, was thus vital to Marx’s use of the term. Second, ideology is linked to the class system . Marx believed that the distortion implicit in ideology stems from the fact that it reflects the interests and perspective on society of the ruling class. The ideology of a capitalist society is therefore bourgeois ideology . The ruling class is unwilling to recognize itself as an oppressor and, equally, is anxious to reconcile the oppressed to their oppression. The class system is thus presented upside down, a notion Marx conveyed through the image of the camera obscura, the inverted picture
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