ABSTRACT
This chapter develops an interpretive perspective on political tolerance for nonconformity. Research indicating differences in tolerance between elites and the public is interpreted as arising from dual ideological strands within legal discourse that are appropriated depending on one's location in social relations. Although the concept of ideology may be understood in various ways, much of the most useful work derives from theories of practice. A growing body of research and writing on law examines the ideological effects of legal practices, institutions, and doctrines. The clear and present danger doctrine responded to different political problems and drew on different philosophical premises than nativist and xenophobic political discourses and scientific discourses based on notions of ethnic and racial superiority. Practice theory seeks to avoid the assumption from classical Marxist accounts that ideology is "false consciousness"—a set of ideas imposed by a dominant class and accepted by subordinate classes whose "real" interests are compromised.
