Ideology

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Ideology is a term that may have several meanings: it may be an abusive label for political ideas that the speaker does not like; it may be a critical name for the system of ideas promoted by a particular class or group to keep itself in power; or it may be a term used in political science to designate the more-or-less coherent set of political ideas held by any particular social group (Seliger). This last sense is probably the most reliable, albeit the other senses usually hide in its margins.

In 1960 Daniel Bell’s The End of Ideology pronounced that ideological conflict in advanced capitalist societies was a thing of the past, political strife having been replaced by the consensus around democratic liberalism. The next decade was to prove him wrong. In 1992 Francis Fukuyama’s The End

3102 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Ideology". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1236, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1236 Ideology 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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