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Summary Michael Freeden, Ideology. A very short introduction
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Summary of the entire book. Part of the course Ideologies in the 19th and 20th century at the University of Utrecht
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Michael Freeden, ‘Ideology. A very short introduction.’Chapter one. Should ideologies be ill-reputed?
We are all ideologists and produce, disseminate, and consume ideologies in all of
our lives, whether we are aware of it or not.
Ideologies map the political land social worlds for us. Without a pattern we remain
clueless and uncomprehending, on the receiving end of ostensibly random bits of
information without rhyme or reason.
In this book, Freeden argues that ideologies are political devices.
The term ideology was invented by Antoine Destutt de Trays, who sought to
establish ideals of thought and action an empirically verifiable basis, from which
both the criticism of ideas and a science of ideas would emerge.
Marxism
- Marx and Engels: ideology was an inverted mirror-image of the material world,
further distorted by the fact that the material world was itself subject to
dehumanizing social relations under capitalism. The role of ideology was to smooth
over those contradictions by making them appear as necessary, normal, and
congruous. That way social unity could be maintained and enhanced.
- ideological illusions were an instrument in the hands of the rulers, through the
state, and were employed to exercise control and domination; indeed, to
‘manufacture history’ according to their interests.
- ideology concentrates on external appearances, not on a real understanding of
what is essential
Regels:
- the Marxist arguments depend on the crucial distinction between true
consciousness and distorted or false beliefs. That the truth could be conclusively
excavated was a non-negotiable assumption. Critics label this fundamental
assertion as an ideological belief itself.
- Ideology is dispensable; it is a pathological product of historical circumstances
and it will wither away when they improve
- the Marxist conception of ideology has contributed to a unitary understanding of
ideology
- ideologies are part of a single, even total, account of the political world.
- the role of ideologists has been exaggerated. The association of ideology with
such intellectuals has also contributed to the commonly held view that ideologies
are a priori, abstract, and non-empirical
The value in the Marxist emphasis on unmasking ideology:
- people are importantly the product of their environment
- ideas matter. If they appear not only as truths but in such commanding guises as
an ideology, they need to be taken very seriously indeed
- Ideologies order the social world, direct it towards certain activities, and
legitimate or delegitimate its practices.
- the theory has something of importance even to non-Marxist. Lesson: what you
see is not always what you get.
Chapter two. Overcoming illusions: how ideologies came to stay
The influence of Karl Mannheim (1893-1947) on ideology in the 20th century
- ideology was a reflection of all historical and social environments. Such
multiplicity of ways of thinking could produce more than one ideology;
- the psychological features of ideology are still conscious distortions, calculated
lies, or forms of self-deception utopia (now a progressive or transformative
ideology, as distinct from a traditional or conservative one.
- ideology as Weltanschauung: an all-encompassing view of the world adopted by
a given group, always reflecting the general ideas and thought-systems of an
historical epoch.
- ideology as an interdependent structure of thinking, typical of social systems, that
could not be reduced tot the aggregated an psychologically comprehensible views
of concrete individuals.
- intellectuals/intelligentsia should be able to detach her-or himself from their
conditioning social background and ‘free-float’ among the different social and
historical perspectives available in their society. Their task is to provide an
interpretation of the world for their society. Mannheim assumes that the
intelligentsia would all arrive at a single point of agreement, and that such a point
would be non-ideological.
, - relationism acknowledges the contextual location of thought and the absence of
the absolute truth in social and historical matters we cannot expose a viewpoint
as ideological without ourselves adopting an ideological viewpoint. Relationism
moots three things
1. It affirms that ideas are only comprehensible if we appreciate their
mutual
interdependence, relations are important
2. That holistic framework offered the possibility of a social standpoint from
which
different relationist understandings are assessed, and from which ‘truths’
and
knowledge of the real world could be extracted possible to explore
diverse ideas
circulating in a society.
3. The question was no longer merely what ideology did, but what kind of
thinking
ideology was.
a science of politics. Ideologies are always changing and dynamic, just like
knowledge.
Shortcomings:
- intellectuals can’t be truly objective
- even when everyone agrees, you still end up with one ideology. We still
need a map.
The critical role of ideology according to Mannheim: ideology as an ‘relative
optimum’ for our time and our place.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
- ideology operates and is produced in civil society, the sphere of non-stat
individual and group activity, shifted ideology away from being solely a tool of the
state.
- ideological hegemony could be exercised by a dominant class, the bourgeoisie,
not only through exerting state force but through various cultural means.
- ideology as a recurring pattern of (political) thinking
- intellectuals should modify ideology in line with the needs of the time
- Gramsci recognizes the role of popular thinking in dialogue with the intelligentsia,
producing the kind of complex ideological positions that characterize the modern
world
- he regarded ideology as achieving unity within a social bloc – a cohesive social
group – and held out hope for a total and homogeneous ideology that would attain
social truth while urging us to take current instances of ideology seriously.
Louis Althusser (1918-1990)
- the ideological state apparatuses were located in religious, legal, and cultural
structures, in the mass media and the family, and especially in the educational
system (multiplicity of ideological apparatuses)
- political views of the world were present in all walks of life, acknowledging the
widespread dispersal of ideology beyond the public sphere to the private
- ideology as an eternal phenomenon: it has fundamental features irrespective of
the historical forms specific ideologies adopt.
- ideologies exist in a material form in social practices, thus the material world –
the world that matters. Ideologies as an aspect of reality.
- ideology is both something that happens in us and to us. Thus: we are not fully
conscious of its effects, but we can acknowledge that we identify each other
through ideology.
Chapter three. Ideology at the crossroads of theory
A political ideology is a set of ideas, beliefs, opinions, and values that
1. Exhibit a recurring pattern (traditions with staying power);
2. Are held by significant groups (ideologies as social products);
3. Compete over providing and controlling plans for public policy (reminds
us that we are
dealing with political ideologies);
4. Do so with the aim of justifying, contesting or changing the social and
political
arrangements and processes of a political community (ideologies are
major exercises in
swaying key political decision-makers as well as public opinion).
, Holders of ideology often deny that they are ideological. Instead they have seen
themselves as pragmatic, reserving the appellation ‘ideology’ only for the ideas of
those political movements that issue plans for radical and total change.
In the 1950s and 1960s: the end of ideology? A delusion, because:
- the situation after the second world war did not imply the end of ideology
but the
confluence of many ideological positions on a single point (the welfare
state);
- the 1960s were about to witness an explosion of new ideological variants,
particularly in
the Third World.
- questions like how to raise money for welfare services and which groups
should receive
priority in obtaining stat help clearly elicit a plethora of different
ideological solutions.
The theory of the end of ideology reverted to endowing ideology with an aura of
apocalyptic thinking.
In the USA: ideologies tantamount to political belief systems. Ideologies were
thought to be rather unstructured and lacking analytical depth.
Behaviourist technique: focusing on concrete and observable forms of human
conduct, not on broader social forces nor unconsciously held worldviews. Not only
factual information about political systems but moral beliefs about human beings
and their relation to society.
Clifford Geertz (1946): ideologies as an ordered system of complex cultural
symbols, ideologies as metaphors – they are multi-layered symbols of reality that
brought together complex ideas. These symbol-systems we call ideologies
constituted maps of social reality and they can help us to order social and historical
time.
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Argues that language was akin to a game with specific
rules. Ideologies, too, are a form of language game, whose meaning and
communicative importance can only be determined by noting their grammar (the
fundamental structures and patterns of relationship among their components),
their conventional employment in a social context, and the degree of acceptability
of the rules by which they play.
- far from being monolithic, the standard structure of an ideology was a jigsaw of
components that furnished it with considerable flexibility.
Chapter four. The struggle over political language.
Developments in linguistics: the idea that ideologies can carry a multiplicity of
meanings through a minor tweaking of the words and phrases they utilized
reception theory: ideologies are not only produced but consumed, variable
readings.
The producers of ideology are not alone in being unaware of the surplus of
meaning they produce; citizens take many things for granted rather than
appreciate them as an unusual gift of autonomy.
- Paul Ricoeur: ideologies convey more information than their authors are aware of,
or had intended.
The hermeneutic school (study of interpretation):
- the meaning of texts can only be decoded if we are able to tap into the
contexts in which
the text was written and in which it would make sense;
- Once a text is produced, it embarks on a life of its own, subject tot the
understandings of
its diverse future readers, rather than the control of its author (authorless
text)
Ideologies – as texts – contain infinitely variable forms, the term ‘ideology’
in the
singular could no longer be employed to substitute for the multiple
ideologies it
concealed.
But, we need to take into account that the formulators of ideologies have ploughed
distinct furrows and have made their specific marks on the field.
- Now: regarding ideologies as devices specifically capable of coping with the
indeterminacy of the political message that circulated in a society. Indeterminacy
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