Political Ideology: Past, Present, Future

Ideologies, conventionally understood as the sets of ideas that help us understand, conceptualize and organize political action, are being questioned today. Many say that ideologies are dead - to others, they have never been more present. In this course, we approach this classical topic in political theory, and investigate the relevance of ideology under contemporary political conditions. We examine the history, concepts and norms that shape political ideologies, as well as the meaning of ideology itself. The course contains three parts: Part I examines what ideology is, and how we can study it as political theorists: normatively, conceptually and historically. Here, students learn about different concepts of ideology, and the tools through which they can analyse any among a wide range of existing or new ideologies. The key question in the first part is whether ideology is a necessary, dangerous and/or a redundant aspect of politics. Part II concentrates on the 19th century origins of three dominant ideologies, Liberalism, Socialism, and Conservatism, and how they are affected by "the end of ideology" debates in the 20th and 21st century. The key question in the second part is whether these ideologies are still relevant to understand politics. Part III revisits the future state of ideology in light of the most recent discussions in political theory. Some think that all ideologies presuppose an idea of progress, and therefore ask what loss of hope and positive expectations about the future could mean for their significance. Others argue that ideologies retain their value of giving coherence and direction to political action, yet note that their spatial conditions have changed from the national to the global. The key question here is whether the concept of ideology has played out its role, or whether its conditions of existence rather have been so altered as to radically change its nature.