ABSTRACT
Ideologies explain the world, and are thus distinguished from other political doctrines which merely develop reasons recommending such desirable things as liberty, stability, and democracy. The model of explanation here clearly takes off from a set of interesting features thought to characterize current society and construes these as effects of, because functional to, an organic structure: to wit, a tightly organized and quickly responsive state which can also claim democratic legitimacy. Functional explanations of conscious human action are revelations of dehumanization. The form of explanation has affinities with science, but also differs from it. Scientists investigate hypothetical laws relating to such things as evolution, oligarchical tendencies in organizations, red shifts, kinship, linguistic change, trade cycles, and other abstractly formulated classes of phenomena. Ideological explanation of the world oscillates between structure and experience, which is also the movement between essence and appearance. Ideological explanation merges with practical steps taken to ensure that no experience escapes the structural imprint.
