Political Ideology - Overview
 The 30th Anniversary |
Introduction to Political Ideology
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Introduction
The picture on the top left is of Che Guevara.
Che was a charismatic physician from Argentina who fought with Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution that took power in 1959. The mythology that grew up around him was that he was a selfless revolutionary intellectual who underwent the hardships of revolutionary war while battling his own severe asthmatic condition.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's he was a cultural icon who was recognized by almost every college student and was seen on t-shirts and posters in dorm rooms.
Che is an illustration of the degree to which political ideologies dominated the intellectual atmosphere on campuses in those days (Che Lives). While currently it seems that political ideology has a low profile and is likely to be discussed only in political science classes. Or when talking about the relatively small ideological differences in view between Democrats or Republicans.
The 60's and 70's were times when the two competing ideologies of Marxism and democratic capitalism which were competing for world dominance. The two ideologies were seen as battling each other for control of third world countries such as Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Angola.
Though they are not often referred to as ideologies, it seems to me that in our country today the militias, Christian Identity Movement, the Freemen, etc. show that ideology is not dead. In other words the bombing of the Court House in Oklahoma city is also evidence of a new round of violent actions by people guided by the ideologies of the far right.
Many statements about American society that we hear or read today really are statements that are part of an ideological position. So it is important for us to recognize our own ideological assumptions, those of the authors we read and the web sites we visit.
Ideologies were big players in the history of Western theories which attempt to explain society and were involved in the deaths of millions around the world. The rise of Neo-Nazis, Islamic Fundamentalists, and the Serbs in Bosnia all are evidence that we must understand political ideologies if we are to understand today's world.
Traditional political ideologies have had at least three components to them:
First, a set of values.
Second, an economic theory.
Third, a political theory.
Ideology and Sociological Theory
Sometimes people find it difficult to see the difference between sociological theory and political ideologies. But if you think about ideologies as being composed of values, economic theory, and a political theory I think it becomes clear.
Sociological theories may overlap with the ideologies in economic or political theory but are different in that as sociologists we try not to take value positions.
In other words rather than being apologists for the status quo or advocates for social change, sociological theory is designed to analyze how things work rather than prescribing how things ought to be.
What's your political ideology? |
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 Adapted from Senior Scholastic Magazine |
Based on how you ranked the two values freedom and equality, Rokeach thought he could predict your political ideology. Find your
ranking for each value from the value survey we took last
week and then plot your point on the chart on the left. |
As you can see extreme scores on these values give us the four major traditional political ideologies represented by the four red dots in each corner. Capitalism, Fascism, Socialism, and Communism.
In 1971 Rokeach believed that 50% of the US population would fall in the box blue boxed area in the middle, so this may give you a point of comparison to others in our society.
Interestingly enough, based on this chart my traditional class last year tended to be labeled as liberal democrats, not far off from the dot representing the US 1971 survey.
I have plotted the points for the results of the two national samples of the Rokeach surveys (1971, 1981, 1996) that we looked at last week.
Most observers believe that the our country has become more politically conservative since the 1960's. Some evidence to support this idea this is the increased strength of the Republican party in national elections. Also the Democratic party has moved to the right on some positions that it takes and looks to many more like liberal republicans of earlier times than the earlier Democrats. These three national value samples, seem to support his theory.
Regardless of whether your are convinced by Rokeach's position on this matter, I think that it is interesting to think about traditional political ideology as being the result of a ranking of two important values for Western cultures of equality and freedom.
I say traditional ideology, because it has been argued that lately political ideology has moved to what some people are calling "identity politics". One example being the women's movement who in its mainstream version has not been very interested in suggesting a new economic system.
Ideology Overview
The industrial revolution brought a host of changes to the structure of society and the lives of people who lived in them. The traditional political ideologies grew up largely as a response to these changing conditions.
The landowners were the class whose power stood most to be affected by the changes in the economic and political system. Their attempt to preserve the existing order is one historical source of conservative ideology.
As they saw their social order under attack they emphasized the necessity for authority, religion, tradition, community and hierarchy. Private property (land in their case) was the source of order and not to be bought and sold but passed along in the family. Though the landed class eventually lost power as merchants and industrial elites gained power, the themes of their ideology were picked up by other movements. Over time this set of concerns also came to be associated with a free market economy. Another theme of the conservative view has been to minimize the role of government. The current anti-tax campaigns are seen by many as a way achieve this end indirectly .
Originally liberals were concerned with individual freedom and limiting the the role of government. Over time, the word liberal in the US has come to be associated with support for a secular government (separation of church and state), government action in the economy to even out economic cycles, active defense of civil rights, actions to cushion the effects of economic down turns on working people, and action to open up opportunities the less fortunate so they can participate in the society.
In our country liberals gained a central role in the government when the depression of the 1930's seemed to show that government action was necessary when the market mechanisms failed. A short statement of the current meaning of liberal ideology might be that they favor a form or societal organization based on capitalism, with the government protecting citizens from capitalism's excesses, and protecting civil liberties. They have also tended to see one of capitalism's excesses as the environmental damage.
The emergence during the early period of industrialization of high degrees of inequality, terrible working conditions of miners, factory workers, and the poor in cities; let to a strong critique of the new economic order resulting from the industrial revolution. Socialists tried to provide a critical analysis of the new industrial capitalism and to provide an alternate model of society based on collective ownership of the means of production instead of private ownership which they saw as the root cause of the misery they saw around them.
This change, it was believed, would reduce the tremendous inequality of wealth and power which was generated by capitalism. One branch of socialism worked for these changes within the democratic process while others thought that violent revolution led by a vanguard political party would be required due to the resistance of capitalist society.
These two tendencies were called democratic socialism and communism in the political dialog in the United States. Democratic socialism became strong in many parts of western Europe and has influenced their societies in terms of strong government services and welfare measures. Communism of course became the ideology of the revolutions that came to power in the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of globalization both forms of socialist ideology have lost power in the market place of ideas. The free market global economy and democracy have been seen by many Americans to have won the victory over the opposing ideology. People in underdeveloped countries and even workers who have lost their jobs are not as confident that this new world system will protect their interests.
Recently there has been a different set of movements which some people are calling identity politics. These include the ideologies that go with religious fundamentalisms, feminist movements, ethnic groups, or groups claiming to be based on racial interests.
Also we find the new "Green" (environmental) movement which in some ways doesn't fit with the traditional ideological views, though it is usually put on the left end of the political spectrum.
Below you will see the way political ideologies have often been displayed on a continuum from right to left. This means that the more conservative political ideologies are located on the right and the change oriented ideologies on the left. Though convenient it is of course an oversimplified scheme.
| Left |
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Right | ||||
| Anarchists | Communists | Socialists | Liberals | Conservatives | Libertarians | Fascists |
Summary
This page has tried to give you a little background regarding political ideology.
The next page will introduce you to some of these ideologies in more detail.