Ideologies and Political Theories A Conceptual Approach

by Freeden, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780198275329
• ISBN10: 0198275323
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-12-05
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Ideologies play a crucial role in the way we understand and shape the political world. But no one has yet satisfactorily explained the nature of ideologies themselves. Michael Freeden here offers a ground-breaking approach to the subject. Drawing on the political experience of Britain, France, Germany, and the USA over the past two centuries, the author provides an in-depth examination of the key political ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, feminism, and green political thought. He outlines a powerful andsophisticated new theory of ideologies, arguing that by paying special attention to the complexity, conceptual inter-relationship, and historical and contemporary context of ideologies we can both better understand them and reinvigorate the study of political theory.

Author Biography

Dr Michael Freeden is Reader in Politics at Oxford University and Professional Fellow of Mansfield College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
Introduction	p. 1
Theorizing About Ideological Morphology	p. 11
Staking Out: The Distinctiveness of Analysing Ideologies	p. 13
Assembling: from Concepts to Ideologies	p. 47
Applying: The Contexts of Ideological Meaning	p. 96
Liberalism: The Dominant Ideology	p. 137
Preliminary Observations	p. 139
The 'Grand Projects' of Liberalism	p. 141
New Liberal Successions: The Modernization of an Ideology	p. 178
The Challenge of Philosophical Liberalism: Contextualizing the Contemporary American Variant	p. 226
Mistaken Identities and Other Anomalies: The Liberal Pretenders	p. 276
The Adaptability of Conservatism	p. 315
Theorizing About Conservative Ideology	p. 317
The Chimera of Conservative Dualism	p. 348
Forward to the Past-- the Conservative Revival	p. 384
Socialism: The Containment of Transcendence	p. 415
The Congruence of Socialist Diversity	p. 417
Socialism, Liberty, and Choice	p. 456
Transformation and Dilution: The Assault on Ideological Convention	p. 483
Preliminary Observations	p. 485
Feminism: The Recasting of Political Language	p. 488
Green Ideology: Retreat and Regrouping	p. 526
Epilogue	p. 551
Bibliography	p. 555
Name Index	p. 575
Subject Index	p. 583
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