What is ideology?

We are sceptical about this narrow use of the term ideology. An ideology is a system of ideas, organised around either an attempt to win state power or to maintain it. To call a set of beliefs ideological is merely to argue that ideas are organised for a particular statist purpose: they form the basis of a political movement (focused around the state) whether this is a movement we approve of or not. The term is generally used to denote a belief system: in our view, it is more than this. Ideologies are belief systems focused around the state. ‘Moderate’ movements are as ideological as extremist ones although some movements may embrace many ideologies, and in the case of nationalism, for example, ideologies that contradict one another. Tony Blair spoke of the 1997 election as the last election in Britain based on ideology, although he certainly identified New Labour as embracing a set of ideas.