Ideology and Ideologies

Question 1

Ideologies

Answer 1

sets of ideas that shape people’s thinking and actions with regard to race, nationality, the role and function of government, the relations between men and women, human responsibility for the natural environment, and many other matters

Question 2

Four functions of ideology

Answer 2

1.Explanation – ideology offers an explanation of why social, political, and economic conditions are as they are
•Ideologues – people who try to persuade others to accept their ideology
2. Evaluation – supply standards for evaluating social conditions
3. Orientation – supplies its adherent with an orientation and a sense of identity, for who they are in a group
4. Political program – tells its followers what to do and how to do it

Question 3

Two features of ideology

Answer 3

1. A set of basic beliefs about human nature

2. A conception of freedom

Question 4

Human Nature

Answer 4

Conceptions of human nature – notion of basic human drives, motivations, limitations, and possibilities, inherent in every ideology

Question 5

Triadic Model of Freedom

Answer 5

Gerald MacCallum
A) An agent
•an individual, group, nation, sex, race, or even species
B) A barrier or obstacle blocking the agent
•material or physical conditions; crime; or social, political and economic ideas, ideologies, institutions beliefs etc. i.e.
•Communists = false consciousness: worker apathy
C). A goal at which the agent aims
•Every statement about freedom can take the form: “ A is (or is not) free from B to achieve, b, or become C”