268 CHAPTER 13
those worlds. This explains why the issues that divide ideologies from one another can never be resolved simply through a process of debate and discussion; ideologies, if you like, ‘talk past one another’.
KEY CONCEPT PARADIGM
In this view, what Kuhn termed ‘normal’ science is conducted within an established intellectual framework; in ‘revolutionary’ science, by contrast, an attempt is made to replace an old paradigm with a new one. The radical implication of this theory is that ‘truth’ and ‘falsehood’ cannot be finally established. They are only provisional judgements operating within an accepted paradigm that will, eventually, be replaced.
A paradigm is, in a general sense, a pattern or model that highlights relevant features of a particular phenomenon. As used by Kuhn (1962), however, it refers to an intellectual framework comprising interrelated values, theories and assumptions, within which the search for knowledge is conducted.
Investing politics with moral purpose An additional source of ideology’s survival and success deals less with our ability to ‘make sense’ of events, developments and circumstances, and more with how we should react to them in ethical or emotional terms. This relates to the second key feature of political ideology: outlining a model of a desired future, a vision of the ‘good society’. Ideologies are the principal source of meaning and idealism in politics; they touch those aspects of politics that other political forms cannot reach. A post-ideological age would therefore be an age without hope, without vision. If politicians cannot cloak the pursuit of power in ideological purpose, they risk being seen simply as power-seeking pragmatists, whose policy programmes lack coherence and direction. This is evident in the case of modern, ‘de-ideologized’ party politics, in which, as parties of both left and right become detached from their ideological roots, they struggle to provide members and supporters alike with a basis for emotional attachment. As parties come to sell ‘products’ (leaders or policies) rather than hopes or dreams, party membership and voter turnout both fall, and politicians become increasingly desperate to re-engage with the ‘vision thing’. By creating an appetite for the resurgence of ideology, post-ideological politics contains the seeds of its own destruction, a tendency that helps to explain, for instance, the rise of both right- and left-wing populism in the period since the 2007–09 global financial crisis. For this, if for no other reason, political ideology is destined to be a continuing and unending process. Forging the collective A further advantage of political ideologies is that they give people a reason to believe in something larger than themselves. This is important because people’s personal narratives only make sense when they are situated within a broader socio-historical narrative. This relates to the third key feature of political ideology: acting as a form of social cement, providing social groups, and indeed whole societies, with a set of unifying beliefs and values. This has been evident in the common association of political ideologies with particular social classes – for example, liberalism with the middle classes, conservatism with the wealthy or aristocracy, socialism with the working class,
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