IDEOLOGIES
This chapter
is about the ‘isms’ of politics: conservatism, liberalism, socialism,
Marxism, fascism and so on. It considers not only the general nature
of these broad currents of political thinking, but also gives some idea
of the relationship these have had with political regimes and parties.
It considers some ideologies that have only recently come to promi-
nence in the West – communitarianism, feminism, ‘ecologism’ and
Islamic ‘fundamentalism’. The chapter begins with the concept of
‘ideology’ itself and how useful that may be. It then considers how
ideologies may be classified and then looks at what might be broadly
regarded as the right, continuing with the left and ending with the
centre.
Because this chapter covers so much ground, the ideas of individual
political thinkers do not get the space they deserve. It is hoped that
the reader will be inspired to examine some of these thinkers in their
own words. A good starting point is a reader such as Morgan (1992).
Ideology
‘Ideology’ itself is a difficult term to interpret though it is widely used
and abused. One school of thought led by Karl Popper (1962)