Important Information from the Chapter
Question
The purpose of this assignment is to help you hone your ability to develop your active reading skills. Note taking helps you process what you are reading, maintain your focus when reading, think critically about what you are reading, identify important ideas, retain important information, be prepared for the class and study for your exams.
Taking notes does not mean copying information from the text. Copying loads of information takes too much time and does not help you further your understanding of what you are reading. Rather, you have to synthesize the content of the readings in your own words, making decisions about what is relevant, what is unclear and requires clarification, how what you are reading is connected to other readings and/or your background knowledge of the topic, etc.
There is no recipe for taking good notes. The best ways may vary from person to person and finding your own style takes practice. As a general rule, previewing the chapter before you start reading it can help you get a general idea of what the author is saying, how the argument flows, how different subtopics are connected, etc. Pay attention to the introduction, the headings, the introductory sentences of each section, the conclusion and highlighted information.
Try reading sections of the chapter and try to make a few notes about what you remember from it to get the general idea rather than getting caught up in details. You can fill in the details afterwards.


Solution
Chapter 2: Political Ideas and
Ideologies
Important
Information from the Chapter
From my analysis,
the important information I have found in the Chapter is the question on if
politics can exist without ideology. This is because ideology is one of the
controversial concepts that is encountered in political analysis. For instance,
ideology is viewed as an intellectual framework that politicians, parties and
other political actors use to make sense of the world in which they live. Also,
the information seems to be most significant because it makes us understand
political ideology as an of beliefs, ideas, and values that compete
deliberately to provide plans of action for public policymaking so that to
change social-political arrangements.This chapter looks at political ideas from
a traditional perspective, with the main focus being on classical ideologies
such as socialism, conservatism, and liberalism. Ideology is a controversial
concept that is often talked about in politics. People use it to criticize and
condemn the beliefs of others. Destutt de Tracy first used the term in 1796, mainly
focused on referring to a new science of ideas. He was interested in how ideas
work, and he thought ideology was a new science. Karl Marx gave the more
enduring definition of the term in his writings in the early nineteenth
century. He viewed political ideology as a way for people to be interested in
what is happening in the political world. Michael Oakeshott developed a unique
way of thinking about ideologies (Heywood,
2019). He saw them as an abstract system of thought linked to political
theory and practice. As a result, ideology is a controversial term that political
theorists and practitioners often debate. This means that the ideologies can be
similar to political philosophers, but they can also take the form of a
political movement. This happens when they are expressed through the activities
of groups and leaders.
In fact, from the
information I have learned, many people think that politics cannot exist
without an ideology. An ideology is a set of ideas about how things should be.
People have been predicting that ideologies would die for a long time, but they
have not. Also, the information seems important to me because it has allowed me
to learn that great thinkers have developed ideology. From the information, I
have been able to know that ideology has little place in the modern democratic
systems to the logic of electoral competition. But even though things have
changed in the current democratic perspective, political ideology has refused
to die, thus indicating that ideological forms of politics seem to be enduring
features of world history. This shows that ideological forms of politics are
likely to continue to exist in the future. Ideology has been important to
politicians and other political actors for a long time because it has helped
them understand their world. Ideology is still alive and important because it
can change (Heywood, 2019). When
old ideologies die, a new one takes their place and keeps the relevance of
political ideology alive. So, in any case, politics will exist without
ideology; it will lead to the existence of a world without hope or vision.
Unclear Factors In The Chapter
If there is something
in the Chapter that seems unclear to me is how political ideology has
stubbornly refused to die. Given that particular ideologies may fall or rise,
political ideology seems to be an enduring feature of the world. This has made
a clear view on whether politics is intrinsically linked to ideology or the
politics will be able to emerge from shadow cast by ideological beliefs in the
future. Thus, the change in political dynamics always leads to the view about
the relationship between ideology and politics by specifically explaining if
politics can exist without ideology.
It can be argued
that ideologies have become irreverent due to western societies' parties
competing on the promise of economic growth. Although the Chapter has
significantly explained the reason for political exitance today, it has not
clearly explained why the ideology will not die anytime soon. The unclear
information about the political ideology has made to inquire finding
information from sources about political ideology. For instance, in social
studies, it is indicated that political ideology is not falling down anytime
soon because a certain set of ethical principles, ideals, and doctrines
explains how society should work. This is the reason when you look at
liberalism view, it is significant to explain the earliest political ideology developed because people were
trying to figure out how to deal with the changes in society. There were two
different economic philosophies at war - socialism and capitalism. Most
political ideologies start with liberalism. This is because liberalism is the
ideology of the Western world. The early form of liberalism was different from
modern liberalism, but it was still based on the needs of the rising industrial
middle class. It was also closely linked with capitalism. Although it is not
clear why political ideology has stubbornly refused to die, the reading in the
Chapter, compared to other parts, has only focused on showing the ideas behind
the existence of ideology from classical ideological traditions to other
ideological traditions. From different articles and books, I have found
significant information that has helped me know that political ideology will
still exist because it helps individuals understand why the current situation
exists within the society and how it can be solved.
Findings
From the chapter argument, I have been able to
end up with different findings, which are important in clarifying the topic of
discussion. As I have been able to find that by no means liberalism, socialism
and conservatism could exhaust the field of ideological politics. Since the
late nineteenth century, social liberalism has developed. Social liberalism
supports welfare reform and economic intervention. Because liberalism is so
important in political ideology, it was divided into two types of liberalism: classical
liberalism and modern liberalism.
However, other
ideologies have emerged and challenged the core beliefs of western political
tradition. Although socialism, liberalism, and conservatism were political
ideologies of the nineteenth century, fascism is a child of the twentieth
century. Most people say that fascism results from the events of World War I
and its aftermath (Heywood, 2019).
Two types of fascism have recently resurfaced: neo-Nazism and neofascism (Heywood, 2019). They take advantage of
economic crises and political instability to become more popular. Another
unusual political ideology is anarchism. It has never been successful in
winning power, but it still exists. But even though the movement was not very
strong, that does not mean it was not powerful. Their idea continued to
challenge the law and government. Anarchists believed that political authority
was evil and unnecessary in all its forms. Unlike liberals and individualist
anarchists, they believed that people could manage their affairs without
politics. Political ideologies are very important in the world today. They help
shape the way people think about the world and their place in it. Each ideology
has its own set of beliefs that set it apart. It is important to understand
these ideologies if you want to understand the world around you.
Feminism has been
an important idea in many societies for a long time. Even ancient Chinese
societies had feminism, even though there was not a lot of developed political
theory about it. But things changed in the 1840s when women's suffrage
movements started, and more people started to learn about feminist ideas (Heywood, 2019). This helped women get
their rights in society. Feminist theories and doctrines have been developed to
help liberate women from gender inequality in society. From a feminist
perspective, current society is characterized by male power and domination;
thus, these can be overturned with the right tools and strategies. However,
some people think about feminism differently. They think about it in terms of
the difference between socialist and liberal schools of thought. This means
that people can see how political theory connects to political practice. Since
the twentieth century, different ideologies like feminism have emerged and changed
how people think. This has caused people to pay more attention to political
ideology in our society. After the fall of communism in the 1980s, further
revisionism was processed within social democracy. The ideological change was
experienced because of class structure and professional and clerical occupation
growth that focused on bringing social-democratic policies around the modern
market. Also, having compared the information in the Chapter with others, it is
true that the information about political ideology is the same. For instance,
the information in the first Chapter indicates that politics is understood
differently by different thinkers, indicating that it depends on an
individual's ideology.
References
Heywood, A.
(2019). Politics. Macmillan International Higher Education. 3rd
Edition




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