POLI 410 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Edward Shils, Pejorative, False Consciousness
15 Jun 2018
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POLI410 Political Ideology in Canada Part 1 Lecture Notes
What is ideology?
- Typical definitions:
o Ideology is a comprehensive set of normative beliefs, conscious and unconscious
ids, than an individual, group or society has
▪ Can speak untruth – make people believe things that are demonstratively
false, eg. Women are inferior
▪ Can also promote truth, can frame something that is true in certain ways
that lead you to draw certain conclusions
o A system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or
political theory and policy
- Colloquial usage
o Ofte pejoratie ou’re eig so ideologial!
▪ Like a isult, or partisa
o Holds that they are judging a particular issue through some rigid framework of
preconceived ideas which distorts their understanding
o Often involve a suggestion of an oversimplifying worldview
▪ Implies that what the speaker is saying is false
Behaviourialist tradition and ideology
- Thrgouhout the 1950s and 60s, ideology was also viewed as something pejorative
throughout academia
o Rise of behaviourism
- Within the behaviouralist tradition ideology was viewed as explicit, closed, resistant to
innovation, promulgated with a great deal of affectivity and required total adherence
from their devotees – Edward Shils, American socialist
o Persuasive element,
- Often considered to be a product of the cold war
o North American academia
o Socialist and communist came to be viewed as ideology – dangerous
o While the West was pragmatic, but not ideological
- Pejorative view of ideology also penetrated political theory
- Haeras, for eaple, osidered ideolog to e ssteiall distorted
ouiatio
- The colloquial use of ideology is pejorative and shapes the way people conduct research
and imagine politics
Ideology and the Concept of Power
- Marxists came increasingly to inject ideas of power and knowledge into debates around
ideology
- The term ideology began to make reference not only to belief system (or systems of
ideas) but also to questions of power
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- John B Thompson, to study ideology is to study the ways in which meaning (or
sigifiatio sere to sustai relatios of doiatio
- What is oral ad ioral ouiated through Aeria’s idea of lieralis
- Marxism connects power and knowledge around ideology
o Contention of the dominant class – they use ideology to maintain their power
o Ideology is not only a system of belief but refers to the ways in which domination
is sustained
o For Marxists, this involve a false consciousness
- Involved the false consciousness thesis
o The notion that material, ideological, and institutional processes and forms of
knowledge in capitalist society mislead members of the proletariat so that our
society is capitalist and our dominant ideology is neoliberalist – for Marxists this
is false
- 3 things in Marxists: Concept of power, idea of dominant class, and idea of false
consciousness
Ideology as a process of legitimation (Marxist)
- a dominant power may legitimize itself by:
1. promoting beliefs and values congenial to it
a. sympathetic
2. naturalizing and universalizing such belief as to render them self evident (common
sense)
a. through ideology, dominant forms create what is common sense
3. denigrating ideas which might challenge it
4. excluding rival forms of thought
5. obscuring social reality in ways convenient to itself
Post-structuralism and ideology
- example: Michel Foucault
- Foucault suggest that the use of ideology is not just confined to governments or armies
or regimes or political parties
- Rather it is a pervasive, intangible network of force which weaves itself into our lightest
gestures and most intimate utterances, Eagleton, 7
o Ideology is our everyday lives
o Eg. The way we build our institutions, our interactions
o Ideology and power is everywhere and shapes us through everyday practices
- Power should be thought of as imprinting our personal relations and routine activities
- The panopticon
o System designed for prison
o Prisoners on the edge and guard in the middle who can see out, prisoners
obscured and cannot seen in
o Structure internalized by the subject
o Internalization of surveillance by prisoners, they police themselves
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Poli410 political ideology in canada part 1 lecture notes. Implies that what the speaker is saying is false. Thrgouhout the 1950s and 60s, ideology was also viewed as something pejorative throughout academia: rise of behaviourism. Within the behaviouralist tradition ideology was viewed as explicit, closed, resistant to innovation, promulgated with a great deal of affectivity and required total adherence from their devotees edward shils, american socialist: persuasive element, Often considered to be a product of the cold war: north american academia, socialist and communist came to be viewed as ideology dangerous, while the west was pragmatic, but not ideological. Pejorative view of ideology also penetrated political theory. Ha(cid:271)er(cid:373)as, for e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple, (cid:272)o(cid:374)sidered ideolog(cid:455) to (cid:271)e (cid:862)s(cid:455)ste(cid:373)i(cid:272)all(cid:455) distorted (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)u(cid:374)i(cid:272)atio(cid:374)(cid:863) The colloquial use of ideology is pejorative and shapes the way people conduct research and imagine politics. Marxists came increasingly to inject ideas of power and knowledge into debates around ideology.
