Contemporary Political Ideologies

by Roger Eatwell, Anthony Wright

"In everyday usage, 'ideology' tends to be a pejorative term, synonymous with the dogmatic or fanatical. This is not the sense in which the term is used in this book. Nor does this book adopt the instrumental approach to ideology, common among social scientists and Marxists, which sees ideology as socially 'determined', rather than as a body of relatively coherent and comprehensive beliefs, of interest in their own right.It is this last feature of ideologies which this book focuses on - namely ideologies' key assumptions and themes, their instrinsic content. This is not to deny that there are interesting questions to be asked about the social origins and role of ideologies. However, these questions would require a separate book to do them justice. Moreover, we live in an age of 'hyper-change'. Suddenly, in the last decade or so, the ideologies which were in the ascendant in the early twentieth century seem to have entered terminal decline, whilst other ideologies have been rejuvenated, and newer ones have grown in force. In general, these changes have undermined the left more than the right, though the rise of new ideologies throughout the twentieth century has helped show the weaknesses classifying ideologies by the traditional left-right spectrum."

Genres: Politics

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Sujan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume has completely transformed my knowledge of political ideologies which have dominated in the twentieth century onwards. The book has also illuminated how these ideologies have been contaminated and hence to large extent changed into something very differen, tboth in practice and in popular use of the term, from what they originally used to mean. Given that the fate of humanity much depends on politics, a responsible citizen should know in depth about the philosophies along with their backgrounds, intentions, and end goals. Only then she, like I did, can realize every political philosohpy, however evil acts it brought up in the end, did not originate in a void. Instead, perhaps each one of them has something invaluable to offer to humanity.

[Clancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening and unbiased, this volume does an incredible job of explaining the past, (what was at the time) the present, and the projected future of the world's major political ideologies.

While the final section concerning ecologism and the environmentalist movement is seriously dated, from whichever perspective you choose to look at it, and a complete absence of the increasingly prominent and important LGBTQ+ and racial equality movements in their own right - it's otherwise difficult to find fault here.

[Setjoeil Asa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mantap. Sungguh suatu pengantar Ideologi Politik Kontemporer.
Baca yang edisi Indonesia. Sampulnya ada potret Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Kropotkin (kalau nggak salah), satu lagi siapa kurang tahu (sungguh menjual!). Terjemahannya oke sih.
Ada daftar bacaan lanjutannya juga.

[Irine]

pp. 80-103

[(unknown) · Rating 4 out of 5]

everything worth knowing about ideologies in politics.