Taking Ideology Seriously: 21st Century Reconfigurations

Summary

Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of the ‘end of ideology’ thesis, not as a theoretical stance but as a reaction to what appears to have been the decline of major ideological families, such as socialism, in a changing world order. Globalization, as well as internal national fragmentation of belief systems, have made it difficult to identify ideology in its conventional formats.

Previously published as a special issue of The Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, this volume challenges the notion that we are living in a post-ideological age. It offers a theoretical framework for exploring some of the new manifestations of ideologies, and combines this with a series of case studies relating to recent ideational phenomena, such as populism, environmentalism and Islamic fundamentalism. The contributors reassess some typologies, such as the left-right axis, as an explanatory device and use ideology research to bring together different scholarly perspectives including party-political analysis, the history of ideas, post-Marxism, and movement politics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Should We Study Ideologies in the 21^st Century?  1. Restructuring the Public Sphere: Contemporary Ideologies between Theory and Politics 2. Visions of Popular Sovereignty: Mapping the Contested Terrain of Contemporary Western Populisms   3. Abasso l’antagonismo? Poststructuralist Reflections on Ideologies in Modern Italy  4. Ideological Polarization and Legislative Performance in Presidential Systems  5. Radical and Plural Democracy: In Defence of Right/Left and Public Reason  6. Al-Qaeda: Ideology and Action Jeff Haynes  7. The End of Ideology and the End of an Ideology? Ecology, Liberalism, and Ideological Analysis 8. A Globalist Ideology of Post-Marxism? Hardt and Negri's Empire  9. Conclusions: Confronting the Chimera of a 'Post-Ideological' Age