Karl Prosenescent Ideology - Essay Example

Political ideology The term political ideology was actually coined by a French enlightenment aristocrat and a philosopher called Antoine Destutt de Tracy. He began to attract the attention of the people by the memory of his comprehensive work "Elments d'idologie" (1801), which form the first draft on ideology. He define ideology as the "science of ideas" and did not concieve of the term as uncomplimentary, which it has since become. Hippolyte Taine was able to come out the must accessible source for the original meaning of ideology by adopting De Tracy work and he also work on aristocratic social and political system establish in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasty (14th century to 18th century) these period is know as "Ancien Rgime." He use Socratic method to describe ideology like a teaching philosophy, presenting the vocabulary in the manner in which the general reader already possessed and without example from which practical science will require. However, Alexandre Kojve, describe the platonic ideology not only as the science of ideas but also as a science of object reality in his Essai d'une histoire raisonne de la philosophie paenne (vol. II, Platon et Aristote). Pierre Daunou, Constantin-Franois Volney, Pierre Cabanis, and Dominique Garat, claims to be an ideology as Destutt de Tracy, but the term was used to belittler or express disapprover of it by Napoleon and Franois Ren de Chateaubriand. [1] Also, Karl Marx, present ideology as a critical sense that displayed the opposition between the noble senses given to ideology by Destutt de Tracy, which is having a negative meaning. In Germany, ideology, as an expression of alienation and it is essentially incapable of dialectical relationship that unit or resist those representation. Ideology would then be seen as the discourse of a class, a party, or an association that seeks to cultural achievement, political post, economic, intellectual, spiritual, or other domination over society and individuals. Communist are different from other working class because they point out and bring about the common interest of the entire proletariat, independently of the citizen, they represent the interest of the movement entirely. As a result of this, Marx's and Engels' view that Communist were not a partisan attachment to any form of organization, but only to the working class beyond it and the class as a whole. Successful or not, Marx and Engels have never for a day played a full time political leader of a party organization or active leader of mass working class organization or elite vanguards, unlike Kautsky, Lenin, or Mao. They only serve as an intellectual to the emerging German Social Democrats and other working-class parties in Europe. Engels, work did more than marx's to attract and convert people to the must influential political parties or movement of the modern times. As a result of this, we can absurd to say that Engels invented Marxism. He was not only the first Marxist historian, but also an anthropologist, philosopher, and commentator on the early Marx. Presently, Marx and engels are protected from being denounced by certain activists as hypocritical idealist whose political knowledge is at variance with their theory. The communist in the world today are very few because those who think they are communist are deeply involve in political groups that demand primary loyalty to themselves rather than to the working class. Whereby the definition of political ideology of both Marx and Engels, which is in the interest of the working class as a whole, turns out never to be at variance with the interests of their own political party. [13] On the other hand, Gramsci depart from the definition of hegemony that was widely accept by Marxist during the worldwide economic depression in the early 30s, when Marxism theory failed in most advanced capitalist nations of the west. This was considered by Lenin to be a strategy of political leadership in the democratic revolution where leadership was base on a fundamental alliance with the peasantry. He did not only focused on hegemony as strategy for destruction of capitalism, but include the bourgeoisie as well as the social classes. There is a particular part of hegemonic class that is inevitable that account for the interest and tendency of a group over which hegemony is to be exercise and certain compromise equilibrium are practice. In other words, the dominant class will not only exert a moral-intellectual leadership, but will also go beyond its own economic corporate interests in order to ally itself within a social bloc of forces which represents a basis of compromise and consent. This new conception of hegemony allows for the possibility of any class to become the leading political group. Gramsci believe that the triumphant will represent the universal development of the society beyond the pitfalls of the capitalist state. Though the idea seems to be more preferable than the previous theories implementation in the west. It is highly possible that he relies on the idea that the responsibility of full democratic parties automatically fit in once the dominant group takes over, which is shown to be too idealistic in the modern history. [15] Man are generally said to be a political animal, therefore there is no we can discourse the polity or politics of any country without reflecting it to man as the subject or the recipient of these policies. From this fact political ideology can be said to be a certain ethical set of principle, ideals, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution or larger groups that explain strategy on how society should work, it also offer some political and cultural standard for certain social order. Political ideology is also a question of belief and belief deals with ones perception about the political life in a political system. It highly concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what extent it should be used. [2] Political ideology is not something that can be adopted so easily by any political party to the political system without looking into political culture of that society or the state, where they will be operating. Whereby some parties will follow a certain ideology and the other parties may ignore it completely by taking a broad inspiration from a group of related ideologies without embracing any one of them. There are a lot of factors that hinders the successful adoption of a suitable ideology in society of today. Because the ideology a political party is adopting must suit the interest of the general public since they are the salient majority (i.e. the ruled), which is due to the influence of moral entrepreneurs, who sometime act in their own interest. Since the major problem associated with a good political ideology in every society is the society itself which constitute all it members, you will agree with me that a good political ideology must represent the need of man unless it is bound to fail a short while. Ideology contains ideas that are considered to be the best form of government and the best economic system for example: democracy, theocracy etc and capitalism socialism etc respectively. Political ideologies are also concern with different aspect of the society, which include: education, health care, provision of social securities, social welfare, race, use of military, establishment of religion and the system of justice. [3] The classification of political ideology is base on different method that generates a political spectrum that visualised different political position, by placing them on one or more geometrical axes of political dimensions where the models are independent of one another. The political spectrum in the western countries are usually describe along left or right line, depending on the seating of the liberal and conservative of the legislative assemble of France in 1791, whereby the liberal and the conservative were defined by there attitude towards the ancien regime. The left line is defined along the axes of socialism and communism while the right line is defined base on nationalism and fascism by the traditional political spectrum. The center, center left or sometimes left is term the new liberalism or social liberalism and the free market liberalism is generally considered as the center right liberalism. [14] When we are to look into feminism it can be said to be a collection of political movement, social theory and at the same time be refer to as moral philosophies concerned with the social, political and economic equality of the female sex. These is base on the conviction that the female sex should not hold any vital political position or should not be the determining the factor shaping a person's social identity or economy rights. Feminism is concern with the fight against social, political, economical practices and other policies that discriminate against woman. It was argued that sex identity are just socially constructed and feminist disagree on the source of inequality that exist between the two gender, and some of this disagreement may stem from the continuing pressure to conform to masculine norms. Woman right such as bodily integrity and autonomy on reproductive right are protected, violence within a domestic partnership and work place harassment are taking into serious consideration in feminism because many feminist today regard feminism as a grass root movement that is in the fore front base on social class, race culture and religion. It is also argue that an effective feminist should be able to address universal issue and cultural specific issue relevant to the society women in question such as circumcision of female child in some part of African and the middle east and the glass ceiling practice that impend women's advancement in the developed economy. In the western society today feminism has effect many changes by creating more employment opportunities at more equitable wages, the right to initiate divorce proceeding and introduction of no fault divorce, the right to abortion and easy access to contraception, and the right to education. Feminism has effect many changes on heterosexual relationship in their workplace by addressing gender roles and division of labour in the household. De-emphasizing a focus on breadwinning damages the ability to attract mates, some men claims it in the society. Men believe that instead of their opposite sex trying to have it all they should be devoted fully to domestic activities and children up bringing, this was argued and some findings support the idea of men being derided for not giving much attention to children up bringing and domestic tasks and also few women are easily attracted to men who are involved in these to detriment of their careers. [5] [6] Among the argument, men are said to devote less time to household chores because much of their time is devoted to the work outside their home. For instance the average American father works 51 hours a week while those mothers of the young children who works full time, work for 41 hours in a week. The International Labour Organization estimates this. [8] On the contrary to this, Arlie Russell Hochschild a sociologist argued that men and women averagely spend equally amount of time working while women still spend more time working at home. She criticized the contributions of men to household activity, which is center within the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected all the time to do more than a half of the household work when both members of the family also work outside the home. [6] Kristin Luker in 1996 also discusses the issue of teenage women's choices to have a child both within and outside wedlock. She explained that having a child without marriage more socially accepted whereby poor young women, now see less reason to getting married before having a child and has become rampant unlike in the 1950s. As a matter of fact feminism is a very good idea that should be widely accepted worldwide in order to reduce the inequality that is in existence between the two sex, it also serve as the only means enlighten the women and at the same time empower them to take part the political and social activities in the society and finally it make the masculine gender to realize that they should be able to assist there wife or partner in the bringing up of a child and other household activities. Liberalism is another ideological movement that should be highly considered in the society, it refer to broad array of ideology, philosophical view, political tradition and related doctrine that bring about individual liberty. Liberalism is said to emphasize on individual right by taking into consideration the freedom of thought for an individual, limitation of government and religious power, the free exchange of ideas, a transparent government in which the right of the citizen are protected etc. And in modern society, liberal democracy is favoured with open and fair election, where the entire citizen can exercise their right by law. Liberalism support fundamental human right such as right to life, liberty and property while some fundamental assumption that dominate the early theories are rejected. [10] Classical liberalism among liberals brings about conflict and controversies as a result of different trends within liberalism. Some times Different words are use for the same beliefs by opposite side in most debate and some times they use related words for different beliefs. Political liberalism shows that individuals are the basis of law in the society, and the ends of individual is carried out by the society and its institutions, without showing favour to those of higher social rank. And in cultural liberalism the right of individual pertaining to conscience and life style are focused such as sexual freedom, cognitive freedom, religious freedom and protection from government intrusion into private life. Other general principles of liberalism are economic and social liberalism. At present liberalism is use differently in different countries, most especially in the United States and the European countries. In the United States it is refer to as modern liberalism, which is contrasted with conservatism. In America regulation for business and support broad racial, ethnic, sexual and religious tolerance are practiced. While in the European countries, liberalism is not only contrasted with conservatism and Christian democracy, but socialism and social democracy are included. [10] The importance of representing liberal democracy as the best form of government is stressed by liberalism. And the representatives elected are subjected to the rule of law and the power is moderated by constitution. The protection of rights and freedom of individual and the will of the majority are limited when liberalism is emphasized. Civil right is advocated for all citizens by liberalism. It includes the equal treatment of all citizens irrespective of race, sex and class. In the present international politics, there is decrease or no consensus about liberalism, although certain notions can still be found in liberalism. How ever some liberal were among the strongest advocates of the international co-operate and the building of super national organization such as the United Nation and the European Union that have contributed to promote peace and unity in the world of today, Presently political ideology should be taking as a very important factor in the society because they serve the interest of the citizen and the nation as a whole and at the same time provide an individual in the society of what there political activities is all about. Though political ideology is in decline because most political parties do not practice it because of the own selfish interest and has become extinct in some nation when compare to the period of cold war. This should be a great concern of every individual and there should be a way of address it the world of today in order to protect the interest and the right of the entire citizen. Reference 1. Arendt, Hannah.(1973) the origen of totalitarianism. new ed.new york 2. Mullins, Willard A. (1972) "On the Concept of Ideology in Political Science." The American Political Science Review. American Political Science Association. 3. Minar, David M. (1961) "Ideology and Political Behavior", Midwest Journal of Political Science. Midwest Political Science Association 4. Pinker, Steven. (2002) "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature." New York: Penguin Group, Inc 5. Townsend J.M.; Wasserman T., (1997) "The Perception of Sexual Attractiveness: Sex Differences in Variability". Archives of Sexual Behaviour, Volume 26, Number 3. pp. 243-268(26) 6. Sacks, Glenn, "Environmental Predictors of Geographic Variation in Human Mating Preferences." Ethology 108 (4), 303-317. In Defense of Working Fathers. 7. Sacks, Glenn (2006-05-17). Is Pay a Function of Gender Bias. 8. Scott J. South and Glenna Spitze, (1994) "Housework in Marital and Nonmarital Households," American Sociological Review 59, no. 3 : 327-348 9. Doodin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip,(1995)"'Liberalism' is defined as a social ethic that advocates liberty, and equality in general." . Distributive Justice, A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, edited by Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p.440. 10. Anthony Alblaster (1984), The Rise and Decline of Western Liberalism, New York, Basil Blackwell, , page 353 11. Guide de Ruggeiro(1954), The History of European Liberalism, Bacon press, , page 379 12. Richard Rorty, (1993), "Feminism, Ideology, and Deconstruction: a Pragmatist View." v 8, n2, COPYRIGHT Hypatia Inc 13. Gouldner, Alvin W. (1973), Renewal and Critique in Sociology Today "The Politics of the Mind", section titled "Theory and Ideology" 14. Charles Blattberg (July 2001), Political Philosophies and Political Ideologies (PDF); online, previous version published in Public Affairs Quarterly 15, No. 3 15. Sofia Perrino on Antonio Gramsci's (26/04/2007), "Prison Notebooks selected. http://www.english.upenn.edu/jenglish/Courses/perrino.html Read More