In
Marxist philosophy
Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fr ...
, the term dominant ideology denotes the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society. As a mechanism of social control, the dominant ideology
frames how the
majority of the population thinks about the nature of society, their place in society, and their connection to a social class.
[''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' p. 236.]
In ''
The German Ideology'' (1845), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels said that "The ideas of the ruling class are, in any age, the ruling ideas" applied to every social class in service to the interests of the
ruling class. In revolutionary praxis, the slogan: "The dominant ideology is the ideology of the dominant class" summarises ideology's function as a basis for
revolution.
In a capitalist, bourgeois society, Marxist revolutionary praxis seeks to achieve the social and political circumstances that render the
ruling class as
politically illegitimate, as such, it is requisite for the successful
deposition
Deposition may refer to:
* Deposition (law), taking testimony outside of court
* Deposition (politics), the removal of a person of authority from political power
* Deposition (university), a widespread initiation ritual for new students practiced f ...
of the
capitalist system of production. Then, the ideology of the
working class achieves and establishes social, political, and economic
dominance, so that the proletariat (the urban working class and the peasantry) can assume power (political and economic) as the dominant class of the society.
In non-Marxist theory, the ''dominant ideology'' means the values, beliefs, and morals shared by the social majority, which frames how most of the populace think about their society, and so, to the extent that it does, it may or may not serve the
interests of the
ruling class; therefore, the extent to which a dominant ideology effectively dominates collective societal thought may or may not have declined during the
modern era.
Marxism
Social control exercised and effected by means of the ideological manipulation of aspects of the common culture of a society—religion and politics, culture and economy, etc.—to explain and justify the ''status quo'' to the political advantage of the dominant (ruling) class dates from the
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
, in the 18th century. Such a method of social control conceptually derived from the
Noble Lie, proposed by
Plato, which was required for the social stability of a
republic composed of three social classes. In Book 3 (414e–15c) of ''
The Republic'', Plato presents the
Noble Lie (''gennaion pseudos'', γενναῖον ψεῦδος) in a fictional tale, wherein Socrates establishes and justifies the origin of the
socially stratified society:
By the nineteenth century, Karl Marx described such ruling-class cultural hegemony with the term ''dominant ideology'', which described the societal ''status quo'' (religious and political, economic and cultural) that characterised the capitalism of the nineteenth century.
As such,
Marxist philosophic theory proposes two
conceptual model
A conceptual model is a representation of a system. It consists of concepts used to help people know, understand, or simulate a subject the model represents. In contrast, physical models are physical object such as a toy model that may be assembl ...
s, the Intentional and the Spontaneous, to characterise the social function(s) of the dominant ideology:
;(i) Intentional
Ideology is deliberately constructed by
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
and
petit-bourgeois
''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, literally 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a French term that refers to a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasants and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological sta ...
intellectuals, which then is propagated by the
mass communications media (print, radio, television, cinema, Internet). Hence, because the bourgeoisie own the communications media, as a social class, they can select, determine, and publish the economic, social, and cultural concepts that constitute the established ''status quo'', which are the
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
(formal doctrines) that serves their interests as the
ruling class of the society.
Moreover, because the working class own no mass communications media, they are overwhelmed by the bourgeoisie′s
cultural hegemony
In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of ...
, and, because they have no intellectuals of their own, they adopt the imposed bourgeois
worldview (''Weltanschauung''), which thus constitutes a
false consciousness about their own economic
exploitation
Exploitation may refer to:
*Exploitation of natural resources
*Exploitation of labour
**Forced labour
*Exploitation colonialism
*Slavery
**Sexual slavery and other forms
*Oppression
*Psychological manipulation
In arts and entertainment
* Exploit ...
by the strata of the upper classes; with that false awareness the working class lose their social and political, economic and cultural independence as a social class.
;(ii) Spontaneous
Ideology spontaneously originates in every social class of a society, as an expression of the existing material structure of the given society. Based upon their experiences of societal life, the men and women of each social class (upper, middle, lower) construct their intellectual understanding of the society, and, because their societal experiences are primarily of capitalist social relations, the shared (dominant) ideology tends to reflect the
norms of a capitalist society. Hence, the content of the reportage of a
newspaper is determined, not by the socio-economic and political prejudices of the
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
, but by the societal ''status quo'', the fixed social
narrative that is believed by the publisher and by the readers of the newspaper.
In organising as
trade unions, the working class experience and express a different type of social relation within a capitalist society, because such an ideological perspective challenges the intellectual and social legitimacy of capitalism, by questioning the validity of how society is organised, and thus how it functions. The successful establishment of a working-class ideology (worldview) represents a collective approach to perceiving and resolving the socio-economic, political, and cultural problems of working-class people. Therefore, by means of such an embryonic
class consciousness
In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that a person holds regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their class interests. According to Karl Marx, it is an awareness that is key to ...
, a new material structure, within a capitalist society, becomes the base of a new ideology that expresses the interests of workers—and contradicts the ''status quo'' of the bourgeois cultural hegemony proposed and established by the dominant ideology of the capitalist ruling class.
Criticism
In Marxist theory, one of the social classes of a society becomes the ruling class when they are a socially progressive force sufficiently powerful, with popular support of the other social classes, to overthrow the previous ruling class. For example, the great bourgeois
revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries occurred because the
bourgeoisie had become the standard-bearer for social progress, the
universal class. The bourgeoisie gradually began to lose its progressive character and became increasingly reactionary once it came to power (since it began to support the status quo rather than seek further social progress).
As a consequence, the dominant ideology may contain a mixture of socially
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy pa ...
and
regressive elements. Therefore, Marxists do not reject everything and anything related to the dominant ideology of capitalism; rather, they agree with its progressive elements and criticise its regressive elements. In other words, Marxist critiques of the dominant ideology of capitalism are not normally crude rejections of their content, but rather of their limiting, capitalist form.
See also
*
Conventional wisdom
The conventional wisdom or received opinion is the body of ideas or explanations generally accepted by the public and/or by experts in a field. In religion, this is known as orthodoxy.
Etymology
The term is often credited to the economist John ...
*
Cultural hegemony
In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of ...
*
False consciousness
*
Framing (social sciences)
In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies organize, perceive, and communicate about reality.
Framing can manifest in thought or interpersonal communicati ...
*
Ideocracy
Ideocracy (a portmanteau word combining "ideology" and ''kratos'', Greek for "power") is "governance of a state according to the principles of a particular (political) ideology; a state or country governed in this way". It is government based on ...
*
Tui (intellectual)
The German modernist theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht invented the term and used it in a range of critical and creative projects, including the material that he developed in the mid-1930s for his so-called ''Tui-Novel''—an unfinished satire o ...
References
{{Marxist and communist phraseology
Conformity
Marxist theory