Political Ideologies

Refer to a new “science of ideas” that set out to uncover the origins of conscious thought and ideas.

Destutt de Tracy

To analyze the nature, role and significance of this category of thought, and to reflect on questions such as which sets of political ideas and arguments should be classified as ideologies.

A more or less coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for organized political action, whether this is intended to preserve, modify, or overthrow the existing system of power relationships.

• Offer an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a worldview • Provide a model of a desired future, a vision of the Good Society, and • Outline how the political change can and should be brought about.

• It set goals that inspires political activity. • Also help to shape the nature of political systems. • Can act as a form of social cement, providing social groups, and indeed whole societies, with a set of unifying beliefs and values.

Are molded by the social and historical circumstances in which they develop and by the political ambitions they serve.

• Liberalism • Conservatism • Socialism • Social Democracy • Communism & Marxism • Fascism • Anarchism • Feminism • Post-colonialism • Ecologism

Political ideology based on the values of individual liberty, equality, and economic freedom.

Political doctrine. It reflected the aspirations of rising industrial middle class.

It attacked absolutism and feudal privilege, instead advocating constitutional and, later representative government.

a liberal economic creed had developed that extolled the virtues of laissez-faire and condemned all forms of government intervention.

• Individualism • Freedom • Reason • Toleration • Consent • Constitutionalism

core principle of liberal ideology; reflects a belief in the supreme importance of human individual.

individual freedom or liberty is the core value of liberalism; given priority over, say, equality, justice or authority.

Inclines them to place their faith in the ability of individuals to make wise judgement on their own behalf.

Implies a belief in foundational equality: that is, the belief that individuals are born equal, at least in terms of moral worth.

Forbearance; the willingness of people to allow others to think, speak and act in ways of which they disapprove is both a guarantee of individual liberty and a means of social enrichment.

Authority and social relationships should always be based on consent or willing agreement. Government must be based on the “consent of the governed”

Limited government; fragmentation of government power, creation of checks and balances among government institutions, and by the establishment of a codified or ‘written’ constitution embodying a bill of rights that defines the relationship between state and the individual.

(Edmund Burke)This expresses a preference of the old and established social and political order. Its advocates stress the importance of respect for authority, tradition, prescription and continuity.

Middle class revolts against the monarchial system because of the heavy taxation and other form of oppression.

• Tradition • Pragmatism • Human Imperfection • Organicism • Hierarchy • Authority • Property

Central theme of conservative thought, closely linked to the perceived virtues of tradition, respect for established customs, and institutions that have endured through time.