1. Thinking
Politically
Dr. Christopher S. Rice
Image (cc) 2005 Flickr user tsmyther

2. “Individuals engage in political
thinking when they seek to
determine which political ideas
offer more promise, which political
regimes best respond to particular
challenges, and which regimes
best meet the needs of people.”
~ Steven DeLue

5. (cc) 2007 Flickr user Gaetan Lee
The Common Good
(cc) 2006 Flickr user JoseJose
(cc) 2007 Flickr user rjzil (cc) 2006 Flickr user wallyg

6. (cc) 2007 Flickr user law_keven (cc) 2006 Flickr user RobW_

7. RIGHTS RESPONSIBILITIES

8. Political Thinking means
TESTING
Political Ideas
(cc) 2007 Flickr user *maya*

10. 3
Types of Political Theory

11. Empirical Theory
Describes, explains and
evaluates human life as it is
lived in community with
others, and predicts future
patterns of community life.

12. Normative Theory
Advocates (and criticizes)
certain ideals and values
about how humans ought to
live in community with others
and prescribes methods for
attaining (or avoiding) these
ideas and values

13. IS
vs.
OUGHT TO BE

14. Evaluative Theory
Theories which connect and
provide feedback between
empirical and normative
theories.

15. what IS
ideology?

16. “Ideology” is the
most elusive concept
in the whole of social
science.
~ David McLellan

17. “Study of” Ideas

18. (cc) 2008 Flickr user Paul Denton Cocker
Ideology tends to be used
pejoratively

19. Common meanings of ideology
(Andrew Haywood)
• a political belief system
• action-oriented set of political ideas
• ideas of the ruling-class
• world-view of a particular social class or social group
• political ideas that embody or articulate class or social interests
• ideas that propagate false consciousness amongst the exploited or
oppressed
• ideas that situate the individual within a social context and generate
a sense of collective belonging
• an officially sanctioned set of ideas used to legitimize a political
system or regime
• an all-embracing political doctrine that claims a monopoly on truth
• an abstract and highly systematic set of political ideas

20. Ideology is a contested term
(cc) 2007 Flickr user JPhiipson

21. Systems of interrelated beliefs
about social, economic and
political life.

24. 4

25. Ideology is all about
delusion and “Mystification”

26. Ideology is linked to
the class system

27. Ideology is a
manifestation of power

28. Ideology is a temporary
phenomenon

30. “False Consciousness”

37. Ideology
A relatively coherent set of empirical
and normative beliefs and thought,
focusing on the problems of human
nature, the process of history, and
socio-political arrangements

38. Human Nature

39. Freedom

40. Positive +
Negative
Freedom
(cc) 2005 Flickr user PakyuZ

41. Agent
Goal
Obstacle

42. The Triadic Model of Freedom
(from Ball and Dagger, Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal)
B.
OBSTACLE
A. C.
AGENT GOAL

43. IDEOLOGY AGENT(S) GOAL(S) OBSTACLES
Liberalism The Individual To live his or her own way, without Laws, customs, or conditions which
undue interference from others. block individual choice.
Conservatism Interconnected Order, stability, harmony, Radical ideas, innovation, passions,
Individuals continuity. desires, lack of restraint.
Marxism The common/ Fulfillment of human needs, e.g. Class divisions, economic
working people satisfying work, fair share of inequalities, unequal life chances,
product. “false consciousness.”
Fascism The Nation-State The power and glory of the state. Individualism, independent groups,
(Italian) class divisions.
Fascism The Aryan Race Racial Supremacy; “1000 Year “Inferior races,” humanitarian ideas,
(Nazism) Reich.” class divisions.
Feminism Women Equality of Opportunity. Legal and institutional
(Liberal) discrimination.
Feminism Women Power and respect for differences. Sexist beliefs, attitudes, and
(Women’s stereotypes.
Liberation)
Gay Gay men and women Gay power, pride, and dignity. Homophobia.
Liberation
“Black Black People Black pride, power, and dignity. Racist beliefs and attitudes.
Power”
Liberation Christians Equal dignity and respect for all. Sin – i.e., oppression or indifference
Theology to suffering.

44. Analyzing
Ideologies

46. AUTHORITY
Communism Fascism
Welfare-state Neo-conservatism
Liberalism
LEFT RIGHT
Democratic Socialism Free-market
Liberalism
Social
Libertarianism
Anarchism
LIBERTY

47. Liberalism
Socialism Conservatism
Fascism
Communism
The Horseshoe Configuration

48. Liberalism
Welfare-State Free-market
Socialism Conservatism
Communism Fascism
The Pie-Shaped Spectrum

49. “The left/right continuum…is itself
ideological. It serves the purpose of
bestowing a moderate or, respectively,
radical or even dangerous aura on an
ideology. It suggests that to move
among ideologies can be a gradual
process, and it indicates that
ideologies are mutually exclusive and
hence offer clear-cut alternatives.”
~ Michael Freeden

50. 4

51. Proximity
Priority
Permeability
Proportionality

53. Criticisms of ideologies
(Robert Putnam, APSR 65, Sept. 1971)

54. They provide ideas reflecting
people’s private interests rather
than more universal, public
interests. More specifically,
ideologies are the “weapons of the
ruling class” – ideas that allow the
most powerful members of society
to maintain their dominant status.

55. They oversimplify and thus
distort reality.

56. They conceal the way the
sociopolitical world really works,
camouflaging who most gains
and who most loses from
particular practices and
programs.

57. They are mere rationalizations to
justify programs that people hope
will work, even when there is a lack
of evidence to sustain these hopes.

58. They induce people to sacrifice the
present for unachievable utopian
goals.

59. They promote closed and rigid
thinking that is resistant to new
information.

60. They are based more on emotion
than reason.

61. They are based on paranoia, or
irrational fears about the motivations
and powers of some “evil” opponents,
leading to (a) simplistic evaluations
contrasting the forces of evil (“them”,
the other) against the forces of good
(“us”), (b) intolerance of everyone
who does not believe precisely as
“we” do, and (c) an unwillingness to
bargain and compromise with “them”.

62. They assert a moral and political
absolutism, dogmatically
insisting on certain principles
and behaviors and demanding
conformity to their “truths”.

63. They are extremist in that they
reject the established political,
social and economic institutions
and the stable benefits provided
by these institutions.