Do you consider the following statements are true or false?

- The term 'ideology’ has always had negative connotations.

- It was coined in 1793.

- Ideology provides a basis for organized political actions.

- All ideologies outline how political change should be brought about.

- Ideologies are a fixed set of ideas.

 

4.3. Work with the dictionary and consult the text. Match the following notions: rationalism, fundamentalism, economic liberalism, big government, pragmatism, meta-ideology, nanny state with the definitions:

•... is a theory or practice that places primary emphasis on practical circumstances and goals; it implies a distrust of abstract ideas.

•... is a higher ideology that lays down the ground on which ideological debate can take place.

•... is a belief in the market as a self-regulating mechanism tending naturally to deliver general prosperity and opportunity for all.

•... is interventionist government, usually understood to imply economic management and social regulation.

•... is a style of thought in which certain principles are recognized as essential ‘truths’ that have unchallengeable and overriding authority, regardless of their content.

•... is a state with extensive social responsibilities; the term implies that welfare programmes are unwarranted and demeaning to the individual.

•... is the belief that the world can be understood and explained through the exercise of human reason, based on assumptions about its rational structure.

4.4. Translate from English into Russian:

A controversial concept, encountered in political analysis; pejorative connotations; a tortuous career; hermetically sealed systems of thought; fluid sets of ideas; to set out to do something.

 

4.5. Translate from Russian into English:

Иметь тенденцию; быть использованным; понимание (кон­цепция) идеологии; убеждения и доктрины; создать новый тер­мин; изучать источники осознанной мысли и здравых идей; с социально-научной точки зрения; намереваться сохранить су­ществующую систему; широкие политические движения; рас­сматривать либерализм как идеологию.

 

 

5.1. Study the text and learn the topical vocabulary:

Liberalism and conservatism

Any account of political ideologies must start with liberalism. This is because liberalism is, in effect, the ideology of the industrialized West, and is sometimes portrayed as a meta — ideology that is capable of embracing a broad range of rival values and beliefs. Although liberalism did not emerge as a developed political creed until the early nineteenth century, distinctively liberal theories and principles had gradually been developed during the previous 300 years.

The central theme of classical liberalism is a commitment to an extreme form of individualism. The state is regarded as a ‘necessary evil’. It is ‘necessary’ in that, at the very least, it establishes order and security. However, it is ‘evil’ in that it imposes a collective will upon society, thus limiting the freedom and responsibilities of the individual. In the form of economic liberalism, this position is underpinned by a deep faith in the mechanisms of the free market and the belief that the economy works best when left alone by government.

Modem liberalism is characterized by a more sympathetic attitude towards state intervention. Modem liberals abandoned their belief in laissez-faire capitalism, largely as a result of J.M. Keynes insight that growth and prosperity could only be maintained through a system of managed or regulated capitalism, with key economic responsibilities being placed in the hands of the state.

Neoliberalism is an updated version of classical political economy. The central pillars of neoliberalism are the market and the individual. The principal neoliberal goal is to ‘roll back the frontiers of the state, in the belief that unregulated market capitalism will deliver efficiency, growth and widespread prosperity. In this view, the ‘dead hand’ of the state saps initiative and discourages enterprise; government, however well intentioned, invariably has a damaging effect upon human affaire. This is reflected in the liberal New Right’s concern with the politics of ownership, and its preference for private enterprise over state enterprise or nationalization.

The nanny state is seen to breed a culture of dependency and to undermine freedom, which is understood as freedom of choice in the market place. Instead, faith is placed in self-help, individual responsibility and entrepreneurial ism.

Conservative ideas and doctrines first emerged in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century as a reaction against growing pace of economic and political change.

From the very outset, divisions in conservative thought were apparent. In continental Europe, a form of conservatism emerged that was characterized by the attitude rejecting out of hand any idea of reform. A more flexible, more cautious, and ultimately more successful form of conservatism developed in the UK and the USA that was characterized by belief in ‘change in order to conserve’. This stance enabled conservatives to embrace the cause of social reform under the paternalistic banner of ‘One Nation’.

The New Right represents a departure in conservative thought that amounts to a kind of counter-revolution against both the postwar drift towards state intervention and spread of liberal or progressive social values. However, the New Right does not so much constitute a coherent and systematic philosophy as an attempt to marry two distinct traditions usually termed ‘neoliberalism’ and ‘neo-conservatism’.

Neo-conservatism reasserts nineteenth-century conservative social principles. The conservative New Right wishes, above all, to restore authority and return to traditional values, notably those linked to the family, religion and the nation. Authority is seen as guaranteeing social stability, while shared values and common culture are believed to generate social cohesion and make civilized existence possible. The enemies of neo-conservatism are therefore permissiveness, the cult of the self. Another aspect of neo-conservatism is the tendency to view the emergence of multicultural and multireligious societies with concern, on the basis that they are conflict-ridden and inherently unstable. It is skeptical about both immigration and the growing influence of supranational bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union.

VOCABULARY:

 

1. to commit v — поручать, вверять, совершать: ошибку (а mistake), преступление (crime); заключить в тюрьму, пере­дать суду; to commit oneself - принимать на себя обязатель­ства; commitment п — обязательство; приверженность; committed а — взявший на себя обязательство; заключенный под стражу.

2. to guarantee v — гарантировать, ручаться, обеспечивать, страховать (against); a guarantee п — гарантия, ручательство, залог; a guarantor п — гарант.

3. to abandon v - оставлять, покидать (a city), отказываться от, бросить (привычку — a habit); to abandon oneself to — преда­ваться чему-либо; to abandon oneself to an idea - склоняться к мысли; abandonment n — оставление, отказ от, заброшен­ность; abandoned а — заброшенный, запущенный.

4. to assert v — утверждать, заявлять, отстаивать; to assert oneself — отстаивать свои права; assertion п — утверждение, заявление, phr — a mere assertion — голословное утвержде­ние; assertive а — утвердительный, настойчивый

5. to accumulate v — накапливать, скапливаться; accumulation n — накопление, скопление; accumulative a — накопивший­ся; accumulator n — собиратель.

6. to promote v — помогать, способствовать, продвигать (по службе, на рынке); promotion п - содействие, продвижение по службе; promoted а — получивший повышение.

 

5.2. Translate from English into Russian:

Liberalism emerged as a developed political creed; this position is underpinned by a deep faith in the mechanisms of the free market; the economy works best when left alone by government; an updated version; the neoliberal goal is to «roll back the frontiers of the state»; to deliver efficiency, growth and widespread prosperity; to sap initiative; such divisions were apparent; to embrace the cause of social reform; a departure in conservative thought; to constitute a coherent and systematic philosophy; to generate social cohesion; conflict-ridden and inherently unstable.

5.3. Translate from Russian into English:

Объять широкий спектр противоположных ценностей и убе­ждений; приверженность крайней форме индивидуализма; навя­зать обществу коллективную волю; вмешательство государства; фундаментальные (основополагающие блоки); порождать иждивенчество; более осторожная и гибкая форма консерватизма; под патерналистским знаменем; соединить две различные тенденции; недоверчиво (пессимистически) относиться к ч-л.

 

5.4. Fill in the blanks with either ‘economic’ or ‘economical’:

1. The... and political change was symbolized by the French revolution.

2. An... creed developed that condemned all forms of government intervention.

3. A form of social liberalism emerged which looked more favorably on the state’s... intervention.

4. Economy must be...

5. We believe that economy works best when the approach to spending is most...

6. Conservative ideas rose as a reaction against the growing pace of... and political change.

 

5.5. Translate into English, using topical vocabulary:

1. Обеспечивая социальную справедливость, находящаяся у власти партия завоевывает еще большую популярность.

2. Являясь гарантом Конституции страны, президент должен обеспечивать соблюдение прав национальных меньшинств.

3. Оратор, выступавший за гарантии личных свобод, отражал точку зрения большинства своей партии.

4. Последние шаги, способствующие сохранению экономиче­ского роста и благополучия государства, встречают все большее одобрение народа.

 

6.1. Read and prepare the summary of the following text:

THE END OF IDEOLOGY?

Much of the debate about ideology in the late twentieth century was focused on predictions of its demise, or at least of its fading relevance. This has come to be known as the ‘end of ideology’ debate. It was initiated in the 1950s, stimulated by the collapse of fascism at the end of the Second World War and the decline of communism in the developed West. In ‘The End of Ideology? On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the 1950s’ (1960), the US sociologist Daniel Bell declared that the stock of political ideas had been exhausted. In his view, ethical and ideological questions had become irrelevant because in most western societies parties competed for power simply by promising higher levels of economic growth and material affluence. In short, economics had triumphed over politics. However, the process to which Bell drew attention was not so much.m end of ideology as the emergence of a broad ideological consensus amongst major parties that Jed to the suspension of ideological debate.!1ie ideology that prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s was a form of welfare capitalism, which in the UK and elsewhere took the form of a Keynesian-welfarist consensus.

A more recent contribution to this debate was made by Francis Fukuyama (his essay ‘The End of History?’, 1989). Fukuyama did not suggest that political ideology had become irrelevant, but rather that a single ideology, liberal democracy, had triumphed over all its rivals, and that this triumph was final. This essay was written against the background of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, which Fukuyama interpreted as indicating the demise of Marxism-Leninism as an ideology of world-historical importance. An alternative way of interpreting these developments, however, is offered by postmodernism, which suggests that the major ideologies, or ‘grand narratives’, were essentially products of a period of modernization that has now passed. On the other hand, the very assertion of an end of ideology, an end of history, or an end of modernity can be seen as ideological in itself. Rather than heralding the final demise of ideology, such assertions may merely demonstrate that ideological debate is alive and well, and that the evolution of ideology is a continuing and perhaps unending process.

 

6.2. Answer the following questions:

• What is political ideology?

• What are the characteristic themes, theories and principles of each of the major ideologies?

• How have the major ideologies changed over time?

• Has ideology come to an end? Could ideology come to an end?

 

7.1. Read and translate the text: