The most appealing of the four major and three minor ideologies discussed in the text, is social democracy. To be sure the principles of social democracy present a political framework that seems the most flexible as well as the ablest to resolve common and traditional problems that affect most modern democracies such as economic and social inequality, the amassing of wealth in the hands of the few (Newton and Deth). In other words, social democracy presents a framework to achieve the best of all ideological choices. Social democracy for instance, does not demand either a fully privatized economy as present in a pure capitalist system or a pure public economy as present in a communist system but a mixed private-public economy where the evils of either economy run independently are decreased or mitigated by aspects of the other.
In terms of explaining the rise of social democracy through the application of one or more of the theories of ideologies discussed at the end of the chapter; the most applicable would be the Marxist theory. Indeed, social democracy can be defined as a softer, more evolutionary, less violent version of socialism which was, for all intents and purposes, invented by Marx. Accordingly, its underlying principles are based on the Marxist idea that all other ideologies are purely tricks created by the ruling class to either persuade, confuse, or mystify the masses into believed and perpetuating the status quo and the continuation of the capitalist system (Newton and Deth). In short, social democracy is based on a materialistic view of society, namely that changes in societies material conditions will bring out changes in their social conditions. For a social democrat, those changes in the material conditions of society are achieved by a government that, one the one hand, allows capitalists to produce wealth but, on the other hand, redistributes some of that wealth to the public as a means of providing a materialist balancing and correction of the more manipulative tendencies of capitalists to keep all their wealth (Tupy).
Similarly, social democracy maintains as its reason for existence, the goal of what Gramsci’s described as hegemony of the ruling class by “subtle and indirect control over what people thought” (Newton and Van Deth). In social democracy, this is achieved mainly through participatory democracy where everyone has the free and equal chance to participate in politics. This not only would provide a barrier to what Althusser saw as the consolidations of ideology into the hands of the few but also the development of multiple avenues of information that are not dominated by the church, schools, and controllers of mass communications.
Lastly, social democracy stands as a counter argument to the theories of ideologies that advocate “the end of ideology and the end of history” (Newton and Van Deth). Unlike socialism which proposes the violent ending of capitalism, social democracy, as mentioned, advocates as more evolutionary elimination of capitalism. Accordingly, capitalism is not only present in a social democratic system but necessary as it forms a catalyst for change. But how capitalism will eventually meet its end, under a social democracy is unclear. Accordingly, over the course of its demise there is sure to be a number of ideological conflicts. Those conflicts show that there will still be a need for ideological thought and research. Moreover, the battle for the end of capitalism will necessarily produce history.
Works Cited
Newton, Kenneth and Jan W.Van Deth. Foundations of Comparative Politics. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2010. Print.
Tupy, Marian. “Bernie is not a Socialist and America is not Capitalist.” The Atlantic, 01 Mar. 2016. Web. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-democratic-socialism/471630/
