Assess An Ideology Analysis

How do you assess an ideology?

An ideology is the study of ideas, or ‘a science of ideas’. ‘It forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy’ or can be a ‘set of beliefs of a social group or individual’ (Press n.d.) In order to assess an ideology it is essential to know how to asses, this is when you evaluate the nature, ability or quality of something. However it is difficult to assess an ideology as it is a contested concept, it is impossible to define as it is fundamentally hard for everyone to agree on. In this essay I will be making a judgement about the ways in which the concept ‘ideology’ should be approached. Michael Freeden sees ideology as ‘thought behaviour’ which is how people actually use ideas. Whereas ideology
Freeden provides his definition of ideology in his book ‘A Very Short Introduction’ as a political ideology being which is ‘a set of ideas, beliefs, opinions and values that exhibit a recurring pattern.’ A political ideology is ‘held by significant groups who compete over providing and controlling plans for public policy’ they do this by ‘justifying, contesting or changing the social and political arrangements and processes of a political community’ (Freeden 2003). He provides an analysis of his definition by breaking down the definition using the ‘Four P’s’. The first ‘P’ that Freeden mentions is proximity which shows that political concepts cannot make sense on their own, unless its applied to an ideology for instance when looking at two of the dominant ideologies for the political system which are conservatism and liberalism. The concept of same sex marriage doesn’t have any substance by itself but when looked at from a conservative view the Republican Party will deem it ‘deviant’ and against the law. On the other hand when looking at same sex marriage from a liberalist viewpoint it would be made legal and normal. This is just one of the many cases showing how a certain concept has no backbone without an ideology. The second ‘P’ is priority, where ideologies are organised based on rank of importance as the importance of
They see reason as being shaped and constrained by social norms and dominant systems of power unlike enlightenment thinkers who believe otherwise. Capitalism oppresses, alienates and exploits citizens whilst leading them to believe that this is unavoidable. On the other hand Marxists agree with enlightenment thinkers on how religion is not rational, Marx mentioned that religion is just an ‘opium of the people’. It provides people with an illusion of happiness, if they sin they will be punished and if they do not they will be rewarded so Marx states that religion is another lie that helps people accept the position they are in. Marxists consider ideology to have a similar purpose to religion, it justifies the position people are in due to the hierarchical, capitalist system. Ideology to Marxists assist the bourgeoisie to continue exploiting the working class by concealing their struggle by making it appear as though the working class are working towards a way out of the position they are in, when really everything the working class do are in favour of the ruling class. Ideology plays against the working class in a number of ways by blinding them, for example the Health and Safety Act was created to protect workers from injuring themselves which will cause them to be out of work but Marxists look at it from a