Chapter 11 - Political Ideologies, Past, Present, Future
The contemporary resurgence of nationalism and religion
Liberalism and Socialism were both inspired by universalistic Enlightenment thought.
Both Liberalism and Socialism are ideologies of secular humanism.
Both ideologies underestimated the power of nationalism and religion, which have continued and even grown in the modern world. Marx was not the only child of the Enlightenment who predicted that religion would fade away.
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The Future of Ideology: Will Ideologies whither away?
End or (Convergence) of Ideology Arguments
1) Recall from the Socialism unit: Marx predicted a classless society under universal Marxist ideology (dictatorship of the proletariat).
2) Daniel Bell predicted a continued consensus on the Welfare State in 1960, when welfare liberalism was very popular in the advanced industrial democracies. He argued that Hayek was no longer relevant.
But. . .
By 1980, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher began a renaissance of Hayek’s neoclassical liberalism. Their argument was that free market economies were an improvement over “the commanding heights of the state” associated with welfare liberalism and socialism.
3) In 1990, Francis Fukuyama wrote The Last Man and the End of History, which argued that liberal democracy had triumphed in the advanced capitalist world. Consumer society and liberal democracy would prove irresistible in the developing world as time went on, he argued.
Globalization proceeded apace during the 1990s, with an increasingly interdependent world: the free exchange of ideas, labor, consumer goods, cultural products, etc.
But. . .
by 2001, it was abundantly clear that the 21st century would bring no end to ideology.
Globalization seemed to create strong resistance movements (protests against world trade, protests against consumer capitalism and the destruction of the environment, as well as religious based movements).
Globalization also seemed to spark regional and national assertions of pride and distinctiveness (Scotland, Catalonia, Quebec), as well as political Islam.
Benjamin Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld develops this argument.
As discussed at the end of Chapter 11, each one was wrong to predict that “convergence on one dominant ideology” would bring an “End Of Ideologies.”
a) In 1848, Marx predicted convergence on Socialism
b) In 1960, Daniel Bell predicted convergence on New Deal Welfare Liberalism
c) In 1989/90, Francis Fukuyama predicted convergence on Liberalism & Globalization
Authors highlight the likelihood and indeed the need for continued contestation of ideas & ideologies.
Especially true as globalization, resistance to globalization, and reactionary movements against globalization proceed.