The Future of Ideology

Abstract

Does ideology have a future? The question is whether the hopes for any transformative politics have been destroyed by the new features of the postmodern world sketched out in Chapter 7. The answer offered here is that different ideologies are necessary to identify broad features of contemporary reality and suggest ways in which social transformation is possible. Ideological thought is a necessary part of the process of democratic politics. Political parties, if they are not to degenerate into power-hungry groups with no principles or guiding aims, must adhere to an ideology. In this sense the end of ideology could mean the end of democratic politics, and of principles in political life.