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Week 11: The messy world of ideology Printable page generated Thursday, 9 Jan 2020, 12:56

Week 11: The messy world of ideology

Geoff Andrews

Introduction

Week 11 will introduce the world of ideology and give you a strong sense of what ideologies do, in what spheres they carry influence and how they are contested and debated. By the end of the week, the significance of ideology to modern politics should be clear.

This week you will:

1. watch a selection of videos featuring three politicians making speeches or being interviewed and assess whether (and why) these may be characterised as ‘ideological’

2. listen to activists and former activists talking about ideology in the 1960s and 1970s and assess the ideological legacies of those movements for later developments in UK politics

3. read Chapter 9, ‘The messy world of ideology’

4. read a short extract on the impact of social media on the Arab Spring and explore the wider questions raised on the ways in which ideology permeates both public and private spheres

5. listen to an audio featuring one of the leading academic experts and reflect on the multiple roles of ideology

6. conclude with some independent study time.

1 The ideological world

Activity 1

About 5 minutes

As you begin studying this week, make a note of what you think ideologies are and what they do.

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You will be able to return to your initial responses at the end of the week.

You might wonder about the meaning and relevance of ideology, or indeed whether ideological ideas have an important role to play in politics. After all, in recent years it has been argued by some that the ideological differences between political parties have narrowed (notably in the West), and that pragmatic solutions have taken precedence over radical political ideas. As a result, it is more difficult to distinguish between the core ideas of political parties. This is what some might refer to as greater ideological convergence.

However, as you will see, ideology continues to have a crucial role in modern politics, and informs the actions of political actors, the policies of political parties and the attitudes of ordinary citizens. Over the next four weeks you will get the opportunity to think about your own political ideas as well as the ones considered here.

We start this week’s work by looking at a selection of videos about the ideological world, which will address precisely this question of what role ideology plays in mainstream politics. The videos have accompanying audios that introduce and comment on them, and you will be asked to take note of the key ideological ideas and language used as you listen to and watch the material.

The videos feature three political leaders. You have already met Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher in Block 2. The third leader featured is John F. Kennedy; you can read his profile below by selecting the left and right arrows.

John F. Kennedy – usually known as JFK or ‘Jack’ – was US president from 1961 until 1963, when he was assassinated. Although in office for less than three years, he presided over a time of great change in world politics which included the development of the Vietnam War, the building of the Berlin Wall, the civil rights movement arguing for equal rights and justice for African-Americans, and the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union.

1.1 John F. Kennedy This section contains three video clips of extracts from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address as US president in 1961. Three short audios introduce and comment on these extracts from his speech.

Now play the audios and the extracts from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address. As you do so, listen out for the key words and political arguments that John F. Kennedy uses.

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Introduction

Extract 1 from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, 1961

Commentary 1

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Extract 2 from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, 1961

Commentary 2

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Activity 2

About 25 minutes

After playing the audios and video clips, make a note of some of the key words and political arguments that John F. Kennedy uses, in the response box below. You may want to play the audios and video clips again to help you to do this.

Extract 3 from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, 1961

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1.2 Margaret Thatcher In this section the featured political leader is Margaret Thatcher. As before, play the audios and the video and, as you do so, listen out for the key words and political arguments that Margaret Thatcher uses.

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Activity 3

About 25 minutes

After playing the audios and the video, make a note of some of the key words and political arguments that Margaret Thatcher uses, in the response box below. You may want to play the audios and the video again to help you to do this.

Introduction

Margaret Thatcher, interviewed in 1984

Commentary

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1.3 Tony Benn Tony Benn is the third political leader whose ideas and language we examine. As before, play the audios and the video and, as you do so, listen out for the key words and political arguments that Tony Benn uses.

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Activity 4

About 25 minutes

After playing the audios and the video, make a note of some of the key words and political arguments that Tony Benn uses, in the response box below. You may want to play the audios and the video again to help you to do this.

Introduction

Tony Benn, interviewed in 1983

Commentary

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1.4 Review of the ideological world Having watched all the videos and listened to the audio clips about these three political figures, complete the activity below. To help you to collate your ideas, your answers to the previous questions are shown below.

Key words and arguments of John F. Kennedy

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Key words and arguments of Margaret Thatcher

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Key words and arguments of Tony Benn

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Activity 5

About 25 minutes

Consider the notes you have made about John F. Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Benn, and answer the questions below.

1. Do you detect a ‘bigger picture’ argument behind the phrases used? Can you note any contrasting arguments or differences in view between the politicans?

Which of the politicians did you find the most convinving politician and why? You are welcome to visit the Block 3 discussion forum to share your thoughts.

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2 The many functions of political ideology The videos in Section 1 provide an introduction to the way in which ideas help to shape the political agendas of different leaders, evident in John F. Kennedy’s arguments for liberalism, Margaret Thatcher’s free-market conservatism and Tony Benn’s socialism. The three leaders broadly reflect the three political ideologies we consider in Chapter 9, but they are not an exhaustive list. The twentieth century is often seen as the ‘heyday’ of ideology, exemplified by extreme examples like fascism and communism as well as the mainstream ones discussed here. Towards the end of the twentieth century the emergence of feminism, environmentalism and other radical traditions suggested ideologies were reviving, often in movements as well as political parties, and influencing mainstream politics.

For now, it is sufficient to get some sense of the importance of political ideas and begin to think about what turns ideas into ideologies. Let us look in more depth at the meaning and function of ideologies, starting with a basic definition of what ideologies are and what they do (see box).

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What are ideologies and what do they do?

Ideologies are sets of ideas which together form a pattern or overarching system, sometimes called a ‘belief system’.

Ideologies provide parties and movements with their distinctive identity and help to distinguish their policies and outlooks from those of rivals.

Ideologies provide more than a single idea about (for example) making the world an equal place; rather, they provide sets of ideas that explain why the world is unequal and what steps need to be taken to remove inequalities.

Ideologies are not confined to individuals but are shared by a significant number of people, whether ‘members’, ‘voters’, ‘followers’ or ‘subscribers’.

Ideologies have core concepts which help delineate their meanings from others while giving explanatory coherence through their relationship with each other.

3 Ideology and political theory The functions of political ideology will become clear as Block 3 develops. You have already been introduced to the political concepts of freedom, equality, power and sovereignty in Block 2. Block 3 will build on your understanding of these (and other) concepts, while presenting them not as separate entities but as part of wider ideological traditions. So, for example, we will discuss both liberal and socialist ideas of equality as well as conservative and feminist views of power. In Block 2, the emphasis on concepts was primarily that of political theory, and although political theory and ideology are related, there are also important differences.

It is useful at this point to reflect briefly on the different approaches required in studying political theory and ideology. The two overlap in many ways and are not entirely distinct categories, but it will aid your understanding of the particular role of political ideologies to keep the difference in mind.

Read the extract below, thinking about the key differences between political theory and political ideology.

Political theory is the term most often used by professional academics who teach and write about political ideas … Political theory often includes the study of ‘great works’ from centuries past, going back to Plato’s The Republic, Hobbes’s Leviathan, Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, Rousseau’s The Social Contract, Mill’s On Liberty, Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto and so on.

…

Political ideology, on the other hand, is seen … as a set of ideas which offers a particular interpretation of the world and its problems, accompanied by recommendations about what should be done to make the world a better place.

…

Ideology is often seen as embedded in politics, in the sense that it is attached to parties, political figures, manifestos and policies, while political theory is more often seen (for better or worse) as separate from or ‘above’ the immediate political cut and thrust – more reflective, more systematic, abstracted more from the immediate context. However true these claims may be, when we look at the differences between these categories we are dealing with matters of degree and not absolute differences.

Keep this distinction in mind as we move into the following sections, and in particular note the ways in which ideology offers different ‘interpretations of the world’, and the manner in which it is ‘embedded’ in the ‘immediate political cut and thrust’.

Reference

Andrews, G. and Saward, M. (eds) (2010) Living Political Ideas, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press in association with The Open University.

(Andrews and Saward, 2010, pp. 2–3)

4 Ideological legacies: from the margins to the mainstream? This section will explore different ideological legacies, that is to say the influences and impressions different ideologies have left behind for the politics that has followed. As we shall see, the ideologies that have originated on the margins and helped to influence the mainstream have had a variety of consequences for later politics.

In the following three audios you will hear perspectives on environmentalism (or ‘ecology’), individualism and feminism that developed in the 1960s and 1970s. The three contributors are:

Jonathon Porritt, former chair of the Ecology Party (the forerunner to the Green Party) and founder of Forum for the Future

the Conservative politician and thinker David Willetts

the feminist historian and activist Hilary Wainwright.

Play the audios, listening out for what you think are key influences, ideas and legacies, and then complete the activity below.

Woodstock Music and Art Fair poster

From the margins to the mainstream? (1) Jonathon Porritt

From the margins to the mainstream? (2) David Willetts

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Activity 6

1 hour 15 minutes

Make notes on what you think are key influences, ideas and legacies in the boxes below, adding to them or refining them as you listen. You may want to play the audios again to help you to do this. Try to confine your notes to two or three words for each entry.

Jonathon Porritt

David Willetts

Hilary Wainwright

From the margins to the mainstream? (3) Hilary Wainwright

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Reveal discussion

5 The 1960s: ‘right’ and ‘left’ legacies The ideological legacies discussed in Section 4 can be said to have had ‘right’ and ‘left’ interpretations (though revealingly, Jonathon Porritt did not see his early radicalism as being on either the left or the right). The ‘left’ and ‘right’ legacies are further apparent in the following two extracts from David Willetts and Carl Boggs.

Extract 1

The triumph of Thatcherism can be traced back to developments in the 1960s and 1970s, both within the party and across

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the country. The spirit of the 1960s played a part in the success of Thatcherism. This might seem an unusual claim – the spirit of Woodstock is rather different from the spirit of Grantham. The connection lies in the Conservative Party’s position as the party of freedom and free enterprise. There is a link between the 1960s and the 1980s boom in small businesses – particularly advertising, retailing and design. The entrepreneur is often a rebel who does not want to fit into the large anonymous organization and instead wishes to make his own way in the world. But whereas in the 1960s that preoccupation with the pursuit of freedom and personal fulfilment was frittered away, during the 1980s the same instincts were channelled much more constructively into self-employment and new business ventures. Our internationally successful pop video industry is what is created when Grantham meets Woodstock. Whereas in the 1960s Labour appeared to be the party of innovation, that is clearly now a quality represented by the Conservatives.

Extract 2

The rhythm of grassroots feminist, gay, peace, ecology, and urban protest movements that mobilised millions of people after 1970 clearly could be traced to the pulse of the sixties. … the new left and the new movements both had roots in the struggle against the same general conditions; bureaucratization of authority relations, industrial and urban decay, the ecology crisis, the arms race, widespread social anomie, and so forth.

…

During the 1970s and 1980s popular movements grew in numbers and also became more differentiated; the feminist, ecology, and peace/anti-intervention movements each gave expression to multiple groups, ideologies, and modus operandi.

…

In North America and Europe, the feminist and ecology movements took on particular significance, insofar as they both represented, in quite different ways, efforts to overcome alienation, social inequality and domination. They advocated (in ideal form) not only democratization but recovery of the self in a world where economics had become globalized and politics doomed beyond the bounds of meaningful citizenship. Not coincidentally, feminist and ecological sensibilities intersected with, and were reinforced by, the radical side of the holistic transformation in therapy, healing and health care originating in the counterculture.

The two extracts discuss the different legacies of the 1960s. One important feature to keep in mind as you proceed through this block is the way in which ideas can ‘live on’ in different historical contexts and are given particular interpretations and applications by different ideological movements. Political ideas are not static, but can form the basis of new or revived ideologies, and this is supported in the case of the 1960s and further apparent as we look closely at different British ideological traditions. In considering the ways ideas ‘live on’ in new ideological configurations, and to decide which 1960s ideas you feel continue to inform current debates, you should now complete the activity below.

Activity 7

About 5 minutes

Some of the key ideas from the two extracts are listed below. Match the ideas to their ideological legacies. Do they have a ‘left’ legacy, a ‘right’ legacy, or both/neither?

Skip to accessible version of matching question

(Willetts, 1992, p. 50)

(Boggs, 1995, pp. 207–8)

Social inequality Freedom

Enterprise culture

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References

Boggs, C. (1995) The Socialist Tradition, New York, Routledge.

Willetts, D. (1992) Modern Conservatism, London, Penguin.

Left

Right

Both/neither

Check your answer Reveal answer

Drag each answer (above) into the correct slot (below).

6 Chapter 9: ‘The messy world of ideology’ To date we have seen the importance of ideologies for politics as reflected in the contributions of political leaders and in the ideological legacies of some of the most significant political and social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This has given us an introduction to the world of ideology and has shown us that ideologies are crucial to politics, and that they are formed from a range of ideas and intellectual influences and in specific historical conditions. We now need to get a deeper understanding of ideology, how ideologies take shape, how they are disseminated and where they are contested, as well as exploring in more depth the significance of political ideologies in the UK.

You are now ready to read Chapter 9, ‘The messy world of ideology’. When you have read this chapter, return here to complete the rest of the week’s work.

6.1 Review of Chapter 9 The chapter starts by locating ideology within the world of twentieth-century politics and the ideological battles of some of the more extreme political movements and parties, not only as the dominant ideologies but what might be called counter-ideologies. It then makes the point that ideologies are crucial to the mainstream as well as the margins of politics, and they carry significance for what might be seen as the more mundane elements of the everyday politics of winning elections and developing policy agendas.

Ideologies help us to understand the social and political world. As Michael Freeden suggests, they help us ‘map social worlds’. They provide explanatory frameworks that enable us to make sense of, and take a view on, what is happening in society.

Ideologies also give the basis for competition between political parties in the public sphere, mobilise public opinion and reinforce loyalty and identity among voters, citizens and activists. Being grounded in common sense, they are distinctive from philosophies, though share similar characteristics by providing an interpretation of how the world should be, aided in different ways by intellectuals, think tanks and the media.

The question of how ideology is disseminated and contested has been refined in recent years by the impact of social media, and Chapter 9 discusses the way in which Twitter and Facebook were facilitators of ideas during the so-called Arab Spring, thereby pushing out the boundaries of the public and private spheres.

7 Ideology and social media in the Arab Spring

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Figure 1 Celebrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square following the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in 2011

We are now going to explore the significance of social media in spreading ideas, as an ideological sphere, during the Arab Spring of 2011.

The Arab Spring is the term used to describe the radical protest movements which broke out in late 2010 in the Arab world. In some cases, notably in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, they amounted to revolutionary change in regimes, while in others widespread protests did not immediately lead to political change. Many of these movements were partly distinguished by the use of social media, notably Twitter and Facebook, as a relatively new way of bypassing official or conventional channels, some of which were in any case banned by the authorities. The use of social media in this way led to a debate over the extent of its influence: for example, did it merely aid more established forms of political actions or did it go much further as a vehicle in its own right?

7.1 Extract: the role of social media The following extract is taken from the conclusions to the working paper report Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media during the Arab Spring?, authored by Philip N. Howard and other academics from the University of Washington and the American University in Washington, DC.

Read the extract now, looking out for examples of distinctive ways in which social media opened up new spaces for political ideas.

First, social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab spring. Second, a spike in online revolutionary conversations often preceded major events on the ground. Third, social media helped spread democratic ideas across international borders.

Democratization movements existed in North Africa and the Middle East long before technologies such as mobile phones, the Internet, and social media came to the region. However, with these technologies people who share an interest in democracy learned to build extensive networks, create social capital, and organize political action. In both Tunisia and Egypt, these virtual networks materialized in the streets in early 2011 to help bring down two longstanding dictators.

… But what are the big-picture trends in social media use that explain why public demand for democratic reform rose now, and why events unfolded the way they did? … The Tunisian blogosphere provided space for open political dialogue about regime corruption and the potential for political change. Twitter relayed stories of successful mobilization within and between countries. Facebook functioned as a central node in networks of political discontent in Egypt. During the protests, YouTube and other video archiving centers allowed citizen journalists, using mobile phone cameras and consumer electronics, to broadcast stories that the mainstream media could not or did not want to cover.

Social media alone did not cause political upheaval in North Africa. But information technologies – including mobile phones and the Internet – altered the capacity of citizens and civil society actors to affect domestic politics. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, have several kinds of impact on local systems of political communication. First, social media provides new opportunities and new tools for social movements to respond to conditions in their countries. It is clear that the ability to produce and consume political content, independent of social elites, is important because the public sense of shared grievances and potential for change can develop rapidly. Second, social media fosters transnational links between individuals and groups. This means that network ties form between international and local democratization

movements, and that compelling stories, told in short text messages or long video documentaries, circulate around the region. The inspiration of success in Tunisia was not just a fast-spreading contagion, for civil society leaders in neighboring countries also learned effective strategies of successful movement organizing through social media.

You might have found some unfamiliar terms here like ‘blogosphere’ or ‘transnational’, for example. These indicate the different spaces social media provides in disseminating ideas. The ‘blogosphere’, an online network where people write, argue and comment on various ideas, refers here to the interaction on websites containing materials from activists and journalists. ‘Transnational’ helps to explain the reach of social media, increasingly operating beyond the confines of nations, one of the traditional terrains or spaces of politics. The extract illustrates the different ways in which social media spreads ideas. For example, there were ‘online revolutionary conversations’, a contrast perhaps to the mass meetings in public squares organised by political leaders in earlier times (though these of course also took place at different moments during the Arab Spring). Such conversations were not limited in time and space. Social media ‘spread democratic ideas’ and ‘mobilised’ actions, as well as providing new spaces for dialogue and for sharing stories. It was able to do this in ways over and above the mainstream media – stories often emerged first on social media, spread quickly and were not subject to editing. Social media created new networks and provided new tools for social movements. It brought ideas and actions from the margins to the mainstream.

The distinctive spaces offered by social media should be clear from the extract. Some caveats should be offered. These spaces could be seen as additional public spaces in civil society, as well as being distinct from those spheres, enabling perhaps a quicker shift from public to private. However, they are used not only by protestors, citizens and activists, but also by governments and regimes intent on closing down as well as opening up debates, and there were instances of censorship of social media then and in other contexts, such as in Turkey and China. Very often social media complements mainstream media rather than countering it. Nevertheless, the impact of social media in disseminating ideas and ideologies has been a significant development in recent years, which anyone studying ideology should take into account.

Reference

Howard, P. N., Duffy, A., Freelon, D., Hussain, M., Mari, W. and Mazaid, M. (2011) Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media during the Arab Spring?, Working Paper 2011.1, Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, University of Washington, Department of Communication [Online]. Available at http://pitpi.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/02/2011_Howard-Duffy-Freelon-Hussain-Mari-Mazaid_pITPI.pdf (Accessed 22 June 2015).

(Howard et al., 2011, p. 23)

8 The relevance of ideology today This week’s work started with videos depicting the ideological approaches of three leading postwar politicians. Their speeches as well as their wider political careers developed in a very different world to the one we have now: the Cold War was its height with clear ‘left’ and ‘right’ distinctions. Ideology seemed to be more central in the battles of that age.

Since then there have been major changes in Western societies, notably the demise of communism and the Cold War, and the rise of globalisation and social movements and social media. As a result, the relevance of ideology has been questioned by some academics and commentators. In the next audio, the political theorist Andrew Vincent addresses the relevance of ideology today. Listen to the audio, taking note of the key points that he makes.

Andrew Vincent

Activity 8

About 1 hour and 15 minutes

Make notes of the key points that Andrew Vincent makes on the case for ideology, using the box below. You may want to listen to the audio again to help you to do this.

Andrew Vincent on the case for ideology

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9 Conclusion: The messy world of ideology This week’s work has considered the role of ideology in modern politics, including how political ideologies are formed from political ideas, what they do, and where they are debated and disseminated.

Activity 9

About 10 minutes

Look back at your initial thoughts on ideologies in Activity 1 below. Can you add to these? Would you change anything?

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Week 11: The messy world of ideology Copyright © 2015 The Open University

You are welcome to share your thoughts in the Block 3 discussion forum.

You will now be aware of the important relationship between political concepts and ideologies and how the use of concepts in this block compares to Block 2. You should by now have a clearer understanding of how political ideologies compete with each other and contest the meanings and applications of concepts by rival traditions.

Save Reset

10 Independent study Having come to the end of the week, you should now have 3 hours of independent study time. As a way of consolidating your understanding of the differences between political ideologies, for this week’s independent learning activity you should read more on the political thought of John F. Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Benn. You will find a lot of information about these political figures and others by searching online.

Prior to setting out on your independent study, you might find it useful to engage in a quick self-assessment audit of your searching for sources of information skills. These are useful skills for level 2 students and they link to skills activities you will undertake later in the module – in Block 5 you will further develop skills in searching for information (particularly finding journal articles and news articles) as well as skills in evaluating sources of information.

In particular you may find it useful to work through the 'Introduction to searching Google' and 'Target your Google search' skills activities, which will be particularly useful for this week's suggested independent study.

References

Andrews, G. and Saward, M. (eds) (2010) Living Political Ideas, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press in association with The Open University.

Boggs, C. (1995) The Socialist Tradition, New York, Routledge.

Howard, P. N., Duffy, A., Freelon, D., Hussain, M., Mari, W. and Mazaid, M. (2011) Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media during the Arab Spring?, Working Paper 2011.1, Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, University of Washington, Department of Communication [Online]. Available at http://pitpi.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/02/2011_Howard-Duffy-Freelon-Hussain-Mari-Mazaid_pITPI.pdf (Accessed 22 June 2015).

Willetts, D. (1992) Modern Conservatism, London, Penguin.

Week 12: Liberalism, conservatism and socialism

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