Does Ideology Matter in Politics Anymore? Essay

Political ideology within a state is established by examining individual ideas about politics and how they are related (Shively, 2014). Even though, not every political ideas are equal, however, they bear some sort of relationship or resemblance. Generally within a state, “ideologies are usually determine by intellectual structure from which one can derive number of disparate policy positions” (Shively, 2014, p. 25).

De St. Aubin (1996) defines personal ideology as “an individual’s unique philosophy of how life should be lived and of what forces influence human living”.

“Ideology is a body of ideas concerning economic, social and political values and goals which posit action programmes for attaining these goals.”—Padelford and Lincoln

It is part of the human condition to have a tendency of going through drastic measures to obtain an ideology that has been accepted as a “natural fact.” Through Anthem, Ayn Rand warned of the dangers of blindly and unquestionably following an ideology; the dangers to society that loyalty to a belief system pose are strict limitations on personal comforts, lack of individualism, and the formation of an irrational government.

A population’s views on political issues may change as different circumstances occur each day. The environment around us has a powerful influence on the decisions that we produce and the views that we as American citizens choose to hold. After a semester in political science class my views and my political ideology have altered. Today I will explain how political science class has influenced my political ideology.

Different ideologies tend to appeal to different demographic characteristics such as gender, class, race, etc. because a person’s background will affect which system of ideas they most closely align with. Liberalism and conservatism, for example, are ideologies that regularly contradict each other, because they appeal to different demographics based upon many factors such as class, race, gender, religion, etc. The general worldview of liberalism is that people have individual rights and liberty, while promoting progress. On the other hand, conservatism places greater importance of keeping tradition and strict regulation of rules. In determining the extent of appeal to different demographics, one must assess the ways in which both ideologies

Ideologies refer to a set of ideas and values that provides a base for organised political action. They justify and influence the different theories of society and human nature. Ideologies have a big impact on policy making, as the government of the day will base their policies around these political ideologies. The two major political parties in New Zealand, National and Labour, each have different beliefs and values which lead to different ideologies. Looking at both parties previous and current policies, we can observe the impact of the ideologies they have adopted on their policy making. The National party in the last 20 years has driven policies from a

Francis Fukuyama; political scientist, economist, and author, in his article “The End of History?” discusses he rise and fall of major ideologies such as absolutism, fascism and communism, and suggests that human history should be viewed in terms of a battle of ideologies which has reached its end in the universalization of Western liberal democracy. Fukuyama concludes that the idea of Western liberal democracy has triumphed in the world through a variety of different ways and is a thriving piece of world order today. However, there are certain flaws to his argument including a US- centric view on the events of the twentieth century.

     Upon entering my first semester at Southern Nazarene University I could not have told you my political ideology. I knew what my opinions, observations, expectations, and ideals were, but did not know the proper ideology that would define them. Through several courses that I have taken, I have become more informed as to the role that I would like to see the government take throughout society as a whole and in the economy. Upon reading the section of ideology in American Government and Politics Today: the Essentials I learned that the correct term for my ideology is right-wing Conservatism. I would like to see the government take action if necessary in the economy, yet let

In the text, From Ideologies to Public Philosophies, Schumaker warns “seeking to name your ideology may encourage us to regard our political ideas as somehow fixed” (pg. 24). When analyzing Schumaker’s words the message, context, and implications of Michael Oakeshott’s quote, from “On Being Conservative,” become increasingly interesting.

1) Compare the various agents of ideological social control and their effectiveness in controlling behavior.

Ideology is defined as the basis for political action that combines the following: an empirical evaluation of society as it is currently, an ideal situation for how things should be, and finally, a suggested action that will help achieve said goal. Capitalism is currently the most popular economic system, but one’s perspective can create differences in definitions. Breaking down Capitalism can reveal an ideology that some may find to be very familiar, and many believe that Classical Liberalism actually contains the ideology behind the currently most popular type of economic system. First, I will that explain the introduction of Classical Liberalism ideology in history and then discuss capitalism in relation to this.

The Marxist's perspective is dominantly based on economic factors and over emphasizes them; money is assumed to be everything within society and social life. In my view, something is clearly missing here such as values and other social factors. Assuming that money is everything within society leads to assumptions that those owning the productive and therefore economic resources are given the power and use it to control those without to maintain their hegemony. Further factors that can form and shape society like gender, ethnicity, age, culture etc. are not taken into consideration and neglected. Hence the Marxist perspective focuses on having versus not having, earning versus not earning and powerful versus powerless.

This essay will assess the relationship between liberalism and conservatism by exploring the differences in ideological beliefs of these two ideologies. Ideology can be defined as “set of interrelated and more or less coherent ideas” that constitutes of both “descriptive and normative element” on how a society works (Heywood, 2007, pp. 6-7). One of the most popular ideology in contemporary politics is liberalism which accord individual liberty and free market as its primary priority. On the other hand, conservatism is generally known for advocating tradition, societal state and authority. Firstly, we will look at theories developed by liberalism and conservatism on creation of state. It would then be followed by liberalism’s notion of individuality and individual liberty versus conservatism’s emphasis on individual imperfectionism and need for society. Thereafter, we will observe liberalism and conservatism as political ideology and how it has evolved over time. The essay will be summed up by a conclusion in the end. The terms, liberalism and conservatism mentioned in this essay are intended to be synonymous to their traditional or classical thoughts and beliefs. Every argument presented in this essay are intended to support the claim that liberalism and conservatism are not compatible ideologies. By compatible, I meant being consistent without any disagreements.

Fukuyama focuses on “the common ideological heritage of mankind” to answer the question posed in the title of his article. In particular, he concentrates on liberalism’s two dominant challenges in the twentieth century, fascism and communism. The author quickly dispatches fascism as both the German and Japanese versions were utterly defeated in World War II. However, communism, especially in the Soviet Union and China, proved to be a much more durable adversary to the idealism of liberal democracy. Only within the last 10-15 years of this article’s