Module-2 3

MODULE 2
Political Ideology
Introduction
 To study various issues in politics and governance, it is
important to know the different theories, frameworks and
ideologies involved.
 Each theory or ideology in the study of politics has an
underlying historical factor that affected its development.
 To study various issues in politics and governance, it is
important to know the different theories, frameworks and
ideologies involved.
 Each theory or ideology in the study of politics has an
underlying historical factor that affected its development.
Classical to Modern political Ideologies
 Ideology is basically defined as political statements

that aim to call upon massive mass or government
action to achieve a relatively better political and
economic condition.
Political Ideologies
Conservatism
 Is a preference for the historically inherited rather than the
abstract and ideal.
 This preference has traditionally rested on an organic
conception of society—that is, on the belief that society is not
merely a loose collection of individuals but a living organism
comprising closely connected, interdependent members.
 Conservatives thus favor institutions and practices that have
evolved gradually and are manifestations of continuity and
stability.
 Government’s responsibility is to be the servant, not the
master, of existing ways of life, and politicians must therefore
resist the temptation to transform society and politics.
Marxism
 1. Alienation is the transformation of people’s own
labour into a power which rules them as if by a
kind of natural or supra-human law.
 The origin of alienation is commodity fetishism –
the belief that inanimate things (commodities) have
human powers (i.e., value) able to govern the
activity of human beings.
Marxism
 2. Class Struggle- In Marx’s view, the dialectical nature of history is expressed in class
struggle.
 With the development of capitalism, the class struggle takes an acute form.
 Two basic classes, around which other less important classes are grouped, oppose each
other in the capitalist system: the owners of the means of production, or bourgeoisie, and
the workers, or proletariat.
 “The bourgeoisie produces its own grave-diggers.
 The fall of the bourgeoisie and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (The
Communist Manifesto) because when people have become aware of their loss, of their
alienation, as a universal nonhuman situation, it will be possible for them to proceed to a
radical transformation of their situation by a revolution.
 This revolution will be the prelude to the establishment of communism and the reign of
liberty reconquered.
 “In the place of the old bourgeois society with its classes and its class antagonisms, there
will be an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free
development of all.”
Marxism
 3. Materialism - argued that human societies and their cultural
institutions (like religion, law, morality, etc.) were the outgrowth of
collective economic activity.
 Marx’s theory was heavily influenced by Hegel’s dialectical method.
 But while Marx agreed with Hegel’s basic dialectical thesis of social
change, he disagreed with the notion that abstract ideas were the
engine. Rather, Marx turned Hegel on his head and argued that it was
material, economic forces—or our relationship to the natural,
biological, and physical world—that drove the dialectic of change .
 More specifically, the engine of history rests in the internal
contradictions in the system of material production (or, the things we
do in order to produce what we need for survival).
Marxism
 4. Revolution - In his work with Fredrick Engels,
The Communist Manifesto, Marx stated, ''The
proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.
They have a world to win.
 '' Thus, Marx had called for a workers' revolution
where the proletarians would rise up against the
bourgeoisie, overthrowing capitalism.
Liberalism
 Political doctrine that takes protecting and
enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the
central problem of politics.
 Liberals typically believe that government is
necessary to protect individuals from being harmed
by others, but they also recognize that government
itself can pose a threat to liberty.
Anarchism
 Cluster of doctrines and attitudes centred on the
belief that government is both harmful and
unnecessary.
 Anarchist thought developed in the West and
spread throughout the world, principally in the
early 20th century.Derived from the Greek root
anarchos meaning “without authority,” anarchism,
anarchist, and anarchy are used to express both
approval and disapproval.
Libertarianism
 Are classical liberals who strongly emphasize the
individual right to liberty.
 They contend that the scope and powers of
government should be constrained so as to allow each
individual as much freedom of action as is consistent
with a like freedom for everyone else.
 Thus, they believe that individuals should be free to
behave and to dispose of their property as they see fit,
provided that their actions do not infringe on the equal
freedom of others.
Learning Task
 Analysis Guide
 1. What ideology do you prefer? why? Base your
answer on the different ideologies enumerated in
the discussion above and the observable political
situation of the country at present.
 2. What do you think is lacking in terms of
assertion of ideas in the ideologies presented in the
discussion?
Knowledge Checker
 Choose one of the ideologies studied in the lesson
and create an acrostic poem from one of its key
concepts.
 The poem may either define that concept or the
ideology as a whole.

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MODULE 2

 Ideology is basically defined as political statements

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