Who define that ideology is a system of ideas at the basis of an economic or political theory?

Abstract

This article explores political ideology in relation to housing. It begins with a definition of political ideology and then looks briefly at the various types of ideology that have been applied to housing. The article then explores some of the problems with regard to using political ideologies to explore housing. In particular, two problems are considered: first, the discrepancy between what might be called ‘pure’ ideology in its academic setting and the use of ideology in actual political setting; and second, the problem of overgeneralisation, where labels are used too glibly to attach a particular significance to an idea or policy usually with the aim of discrediting it by association.

2.4.1.1 Form and Stability of Government

The political ideology of a nation typically affects that government’s position on private property rights. The stability of the government in turn implies the duration of the current ideological system. A new government initiating private property rights for the first time may be a risky proposition for investment until that government demonstrates stability. However, returns during this transition period may be very high. Governments with long traditions of respect for private property rights are typically safer markets for investment, but they may not achieve the rapid growth of a newly opened market.

A political ideology is a set of ideas, beliefs, values, and opinions, exhibiting a recurring pattern, that competes deliberately as well as unintentionally over providing plans of action for public policy making in an attempt to justify, explain, contest, or change the social and political arrangements and processes of a political community. The concept of ideology is subject to partly incompatible conceptual interpretations. The Marxist tradition views it pejoratively as distorted consciousness, reflecting an exploitative material reality, that can be overcome through unmasking; or, more recently, as a fictitious narrative necessary to maintaining the social order. Non-Marxist approaches split into three perspectives. The first sees ideology as abstract, closed and doctrinaire, largely impervious to empirical evidence and superimposed on a society. The second sees ideology as a series of empirically ascertainable attitudes towards political issues that can be explored by means of behavioral methods. The third views ideologies as indispensable mapping devices of cultural symbols and political concepts that constitute a crucial resource for understanding and shaping sociopolitical life. They compete over the ‘correct’ and legitimate meanings of political words and ideas, and by means of that control, over the high ground of politics.

Conclusion

Neoliberal political ideology underpins much of the recent change to state steering of higher education. For example, the neoliberal political philosophy, with its emphasis on the market and light state surveillance, is clearly evident in both the supermarket and evaluative state models. The supermarket and evaluative state models emphasize the state's supervisory function without tight, detailed control of institutions, as well as the self-regulatory nature of higher education institutions based on strong executive leadership and the efficiency of resource utilization and management. These models and approaches are to a significant degree illustrative of current higher education trends in Australia, Western Europe, and Japan. The state's roles in the evaluative state model, in theory, encapsulate the idea of the separation of funder and provider, and policy and delivery.

The evaluative state thesis identifies evaluation – in particular, output rather than input and process quality control – as the government's main policy instrument in the postroutine evaluation regime and in the context of scarce public resources. A posteriori evaluation as well as financial incentives are common policy instruments currently in use in Western European countries and Japan. In this respect, it can be argued that the higher education systems in these countries are converging on the evaluative state model.

The higher education system can be understood as a subsystem of the nation-state system. It can also be understood as a part of a state education system – which is “a nationwide and differentiated collection of institutions devoted to formal education, whose overall control and supervision is at least partly governmental, and whose component parts and processes are related to one another” (Archer, 1984: 19) – regardless of whether individual institutions are public or private. However, challenge to traditional state steering models and approaches in higher education have also arisen from new global and regional trends, such as the Bologna process. Meek (2002) identifies the global dimension – including international higher education consortia such as Universities 21 (a network of 18 leading research universities in ten countries) and supranational coordination authorities such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, and the European Union – and attempts to incorporate it into the concept of higher education coordination. These supra-national actors and agreements affect the choices which government can make, which in turn changes the mode of higher education coordination.

In the final analysis, the steering of higher education is observed within the nation-state system. The role of the state has been modified by various forces and trends and is not the same in all countries. However, in the end, it is the state that is supreme. For example, education and training fall under the principle of subsidiarity in the European Union. The Bologna Declaration, which is a multinational agreement initiated by education ministers of individual countries, relies upon its implementation by the government of each nation-state. The steering of higher education remains the state's prerogative, with the exact form that steering assumes being dependent on a variety of national political and ideological factors.

Anarchists/Ecoterrorists

Anarchism is a political ideology that reached America from 19th century Europe, opposed centralization by government, and favored the poor and working class. Martin (2003: 38–39) argues that anarchists were among the first anti-establishment radicals who opposed both capitalism and Marxism and advocated revolution; although they never offered a plan for replacing a central government. Anarchism in the United States was linked to the labor movement and the advocacy of a bombing campaign against industry and government (Combs, 2003: 163).

The Ecoterror movement in the United States focuses on both the dangers of humans encroaching on nature and preserving wilderness. The FBI (2002) defines ecoterrorism as the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.

Ted Kaczynski (A.K.A. the Unabomber) was a modern day ecoterrorist. He was an anti-industrialist who targeted scientists and engineers. In 1996 he was arrested after a 17-year investigation that involved 16 bombings, including three deaths and many injuries. Upon pleading guilty in federal court, he is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of release.

Two major, domestic ecoterrorist groups are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The FBI (2002) estimates that ALF and ELF have committed over 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996, resulting in damage exceeding $43 million. Arson is the most destructive practice of ALF and ELF.

ALF is committed to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals. They seek to cause economic loss or destruction of the victim company's property. Victims include fur companies, mink farms, restaurants, and animal research laboratories.

ELF promotes “monkeywrenching,” a euphemism for acts of sabotage and vandalism against companies that are perceived to be harming the environment. An example is “tree spiking,” in which metal spikes are hammered into trees to damage logging saws.

Anarchists/Ecoterrorists

Anarchism, a political ideology that reached America from 19th century Europe, opposed centralized government and favored the poor and working class. Martin (2003: 38–39) argues that anarchists were among the first anti-establishment radicals who opposed both capitalism and Marxism and advocated revolution, although they never offered a plan for replacing a central government. Anarchism in the United States was linked to the labor movement and the advocacy of a bombing campaign against industry and government (Combs, 2003: 163).

The Ecoterror movement in the United States focuses on both the dangers of humans encroaching on nature and preserving wilderness. The FBI (2002) defines ecoterrorism as the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.

Ted Kaczynski (A.K.A. the Unabomber) was a modern day ecoterrorist. He was an anti-industrialist who targeted scientists and engineers. In 1996 he was arrested after a 17-year investigation that involved 16 bombings, including three deaths and many injuries. Upon pleading guilty in federal court, he is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of release.

Two major domestic ecoterrorist groups are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (2011 and 2002) estimates that ALF and ELF have committed over 600 criminal acts in the United States, resulting in damage exceeding tens of millions of dollars in losses. Arson is the most destructive practice of ALF and ELF.

ALF is committed to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals. They seek to cause economic loss or destruction of the victim company’s property. Victims include fur companies, mink farms, restaurants, and animal research laboratories.

ELF promotes “monkeywrenching,” a euphemism for acts of sabotage and vandalism against companies that are perceived to be harming the environment. An example is “tree spiking,” in which metal spikes are hammered into trees to damage logging saws.

Political Psychology

Causal ascriptions are central components of political ideology and differ along the person – environment continuum pointed out by Heider. Conservatives, or those on the right of the political spectrum, tend to place causality for problems such as poverty on the person (laziness, lack of thrift, addicted, and so on) while maintaining it is not the fault of the government. In this manner, their causal beliefs are consistent with their desire to maintain the status quo and justify the negative stance of Republicans toward social welfare. On the other hand, liberals, or those on the left of the political spectrum, tend to see the causes of problems as residing in the environment (the government does not provide education or jobs, low wages). These attributions are consistent with their desire to change society and justify the positive attitude toward social welfare held by Liberals. In sum, causal beliefs are linked with broader political identifications.

4.1.2 Political Ideology

The extensive and growing literature on political ideology led Shook and Fazio (2009) to hypothesize that ideology may be associated with sampling behavior and the subsequent emergence of an asymmetry in the learning of positive versus negative attitudes. Considerable evidence suggests that political conservatives tend to perceive the world as more dangerous or threatening than do liberals and that political liberals tend to be more open to new experiences than are conservatives (see Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003, for a review). Such findings imply that there may be a fundamental difference in the way that political conservatives and liberals choose to explore novel environments and test new stimuli. Shook and Fazio (2009) tested this possibility in a study involving the contingent feedback version of BeanFest. Politically conservative participants pursued the game in a more cautious manner. They approached fewer beans during the course of the game than politically liberal participants did (r = − 0.30). When their understanding of the various game beans was later tested, politically conservative participants exhibited better learning of the negative beans than the positive beans, compared to politically liberal participants (who learned about the two valences more equally). The relation between political ideology and the asymmetry in the learning of the game beans (r = − 0.28) was fully mediated by the differential sampling behavior during the game. That is, political conservatives approached fewer stimuli, thus gaining less information, than liberals. As such, they were unable to correct negative misconceptions, which resulted in their relatively poorer identification of positive stimuli, compared to liberals.

Presumably, the more extensive sampling behavior displayed by the more liberal individuals stemmed from their being characterized by more positive valence weighting proclivities. A more recent study involving the full-feedback implementation of BeanFest provided the opportunity to assess the weighting bias variable via our standard measurement system (Shook & Clay, 2014). Participants who endorsed more conservative political beliefs exhibited a significantly more negative weighting bias than those who endorsed more liberal political beliefs (r = − 0.22). That is, when classifying the novel beans, political conservatives weighted resemblance to negative game beans relatively more heavily than resemblance to positive game beans, compared to political liberals.

In sum, we have reviewed a variety of evidence from the BeanFest paradigm indicating that selective sampling behavior in novel environments can lead to an asymmetry in attitude learning. In doing so, we also explicated the connection between the weighting bias and sampling behavior. In essence, individuals’ valence weighting tendencies are a major contributor to their exploratory behavior. Those with a more positive weighting bias (and those who are more politically liberal) are more likely to approach and fully test a novel environment, thereby learning the true value of stimuli, and therefore obtaining a more accurate understanding of them. They are less likely to show an asymmetry in learning in a context in which the acquisition of information is contingent on approach behavior. They will also, however, be more likely to incur negative outcomes along the way as they sample more stimuli that turn out to be negative. Those with a more negative weighting bias (and those who are more politically conservative) are more likely to avoid novel stimuli within an environment, not learn the true value of stimuli, and show an asymmetry in learning such that, upon leaving an environment, they may mistakenly believe that environment to include relatively more negative stimuli than positive ones. They are, on the other hand, also less likely to incur negative outcomes along the way.

Abstract

The article considers Marxism–Leninism as a political ideology, its foundations as developed by Karl Marx (1818–83) and F. Engels (1820–95), its characteristics as established by V.I. Lenin (1870–1924), and its consolidation by J.V. Stalin (1879–1953) between 1922 and 1953 through ‘socialism in one country’ and the Communist International (Comintern). The article also considers critics of Marxism–Leninism, the transition from Comintern to the Soviet agencies of the Cold War, and support for national liberation movements. The final section considers the condemnation of Stalin by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, attempts at revisionism, the impact of Gorbachev, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of Marxist–Leninism as a dynamic ideology.

1.1 Political ‘Religions’

Numerous scholars have highlighted the religious aspects of political movements and ideologies. Communism, for example, has often been regarded as a secular religion. Zuo (1991) has recently described the veneration of Chairman Mao during the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a political religion replete with sacred beings (Mao himself), sacred texts (the Little Red Book), and ritual (political denunciations). The term ‘political religion’ has also been employed to describe attempts made in developing societies to rally support for the concept of the nation. Crippin (1988) has gone so far as to argue the nationalism is the religion par excellence in modern society and that it is displacing more traditional forms of religion.

O'Toole (1977) has used the term ‘sect’ to describe certain political groups operating in Canada, including the Socialist Labor Party, followers of De Leon who wait for a Communist millennium which they regard as imminent. Such social movements as environmentalism, the animal rights movement, and the health food movement have been described as quasi-religions insofar as they provide adherents with a coherent worldview and sense of purpose at the same time that they command a great deal of loyalty.