Chap 7 6/5/03 3:10 pm Page 135 The role of ideology in politics and society 77 We attempt here to clarify ideas about ideology – what it is, how it is transmitted, how useful it is in making sense of society. We also examine its relevance to recent modern history both in Britain and in other parts of the world. Then we analyse the situation in contemporary Britain and consider whether it can be reasonably asserted that there is an ideological consensus in Britain or whether we are now ‘beyond ideology’. POINTS TO CONSIDER ➤ Do ideologies help or hinder us in our understanding of society? ➤ Is there any sense in which ideologies (or any specific ideology) are ‘true’? ➤ How might one distinguish between ‘dominant ideologies’ and ‘ideologies of resistance’, and also between ‘restrictive’ and ‘relaxed’ ideologies? ➤ Are the terms ‘left’ ‘right’, and ‘centre’ still useful ways of categorising ideological posi- tions? ➤ What do some writers mean by the ‘end of ideology’? ➤ British political parties nowadays often claim to be ‘non-ideological’ – are they right to do so? Kevin Harrison and Tony Boyd - 9781526137951 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/26/2021 02:32:10PM via free access Chap 7 6/5/03 3:10 pm Page 136 136 Understanding political ideas and movements Our lives may be more boring than those who lived in apocalyptic times, but being bored is greatly preferable to being prematurely dead because of some ideological fantasy. (Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History, 2000) We are now again in an epoch of wars of religion, but a religion is now called an ‘ideology’. (Bertrand Russell, ‘Philosophy and Politics’, Unpopular Essays, 1950) Ideology is . a system of definite views, ideas, conceptions, and notions adhered to by some class or political party. [Ideology] is always a reflection of the economic system predominant at any given time. (Soviet Philosophical Dictionary, 1954) Political debate is widespread in society. Whether we are aware of it or not, most of us are, at a very simple level, political philosophers. In democratic societies like the UK and the USA citizens are expected to have opinions on a wide range of issues that either directly as individuals or collectively as citizens affect their lives. Even at a simple, unsophisticated level we have views on the ‘correct’ form of government, freedom, equality and equal rights, the ‘proper’ role of government in society, how ‘democratic’ one’s own political system is, the right levels of public spending, and so on. How we think about these and many other subjects will be influenced by the kinds of ideological beliefs we carry around in our heads, the product of our social conditioning, our life experiences and our reflec- tions on them, the nation we live in, our educational level and our social class. We regularly draw on this store of ideological beliefs when we try to make sense of the world. They may not be logical, well structured or even consistent (tortured are those who try to force their experiences into an ideological strait- jacket; and, given enough power, they will often similarly torture others into wearing the same garment), but one’s opinions and actions will make reference to those beliefs. Ideologies can be seen as a form of intellectual ‘map’ to help us find our way about the world, understand our place in it, analyse the political and social events going on around us. Maps vary in their degree of accuracy. One can assess their value by comparison with objective reality and debate with others. Ideologies are associated with power structures. Politicians seek power. Their ideology and the social, economic and political circumstances of the time influence what they do with that power when they have achieved it. Indeed, it is impossible to separate the two. This applies even to those who deny having an ideology. The use of power always takes place in a framework of ideology. Modern politics can only be properly understood by reference to the great ideological movements: conservatism, liberalism, socialism, fascism, and so on. Ideologies tend to have a bad press. They are often dismissed as ‘errors’ or ‘untruths’. If ideology is ‘a window on the world’ it is a window with glass Kevin Harrison and Tony Boyd - 9781526137951 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/26/2021 02:32:10PM via free access Chap 7 6/5/03 3:10 pm Page 137 Role of ideology in politics and society 137 that distorts the vision. The viewer has difficulty thinking beyond these distor- tions and assumes what he or she believes to be the ‘truth’. Ideology often distorts ‘reality’ and encourages conflict: ‘One man’s ideology is another man’s falsehood.’ Nevertheless, one must not fall into the trap of assuming that all ideologies are of equal validity. They should be respected as important ways of understanding the world. One should also attempt to examine one’s own ideological beliefs, to better understand the role of ideology in politics and society. The meaning of the term ‘ideology’ So, given that ideology is very important in politics, what is ‘ideology’? Is there something about ideological thought that is distinct from other forms of thinking? David Joravsky provides a useful starting point: When we call a belief ideological, we are saying at least three things about it: although it is unverified or unverifiable, it is accepted as verified by a particular group, because it performs social functions for that group.1 In other words, holders of beliefs do not need to have had them ‘proved’ by some rational, scientific form of testing. To the believers they are the ‘truth’, the ‘reality’. All political ideologies claim ‘true’ definitions of liberty, equality, justice, rights and the ‘best’ society. The ‘particular group’ mentioned above might be any social group: class, nation, profession, religious organisation, party or pressure group. All will have sets of ideological assumptions that are unquestioningly accepted as ‘proper’. The ‘social functions’ ideologies perform are numerous. They will include the creation of a sense of group solidarity and cohesion for members of that group through shared ideological values; an explanation of the past, an analysis of the present, and, usually, a vision of the future with some description of how a better future will come about. There has always been a widely held view in politics and political philosophy that ‘ideology’ merely provides a cloak for the struggle for power, the real stuff of politics. To justify their power and to persuade the people to obey, follow and support them, rulers use ideologies of various kinds. Machiavelli advised, in The Prince (1513), that religion was a very useful tool for the ruler. To Machiavelli the real objective of politics was the getting and keeping of power. Appeals to the welfare of the people were merely part of what we would call the ideological window-dressing, hiding the raw struggle for power. Machiavelli put his finger on one of the most important roles of ideological belief systems (if we may include religion as one of these, for the moment). Until the last couple of centuries, in most societies the dominant form of belief was religion. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries rational and scientific forms of thought provided a growing challenge to religion. By the eighteenth century there were sharp and bitter tensions between religious and Kevin Harrison and Tony Boyd - 9781526137951 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/26/2021 02:32:10PM via free access Chap 7 6/5/03 3:10 pm Page 138 138 Understanding political ideas and movements secular attitudes. One of the features of the Enlightenment was a strong, rational critique of religious beliefs and the perceived baleful influence of religion on politics. It was hoped that one could use reason to discover the laws governing the organisation and functioning of society as the laws of science were being used to discover the workings of nature. Once religion and other forms of irrational thought were removed from political discourse, it was believed, rational programmes would enable human society to improve dramatically. These ‘rational’ forms of thought contributed to the criticism of the ancien régime in France, the French Revolution, and the development of what we now call ‘political ideologies’ that dominated political debate in Europe and the world during the following two centuries. Far from introducing new forms of rationality into politics, ideological forms of thinking tended to create new forms of ‘irrational’ thinking, stirring up and releasing deep political passions that in many ancien régime ways resembled the emotional commitment to The political and social order religion. Indeed, political ideologies for many that existed in France before the Revolution of 1789 became ‘pseudo-religious’ belief systems that had many of the hallmarks of religious commitment: ‘heretics’ were persecuted, ‘true’ interpretations of the creed formulated, ideological ‘prophets’ identified and definitive texts written to direct the ‘faithful’ into ‘correct’ ways of thought. Marxism and economic/class factors By the middle years of the nineteenth century industrialisation was trans- forming the economies, societies and the belief systems of the Western world. A new way of thinking about society was required. Many writers at the time contributed to the development of what came to be called a science of society: ‘sociology’. The most influential were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who had a striking influence on the study of ideology. In fact, they claimed to have created a ‘science’ of ideology. In their studies of early industrial society Marx and Engels, especially in The German Ideology (1846), argued that there was a close link between the material conditions of society, the ways in which wealth was produced (the ‘substructure’), and the resultant class structure and belief systems (the ‘super- structure’).