Ideology

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

	Main Article	Talk	Related Articles  [?]	Bibliography  [?]	External Links  [?]
	This is a draft article, under development and not meant to be cited but you can help to improve it. These unapproved articles are subject to a disclaimer. [edit intro]

An ideology is an organized set of ideas and ways of understanding the world, usually normative, and often on political, economic, ethical or philosophical subjects. Some ideologies are self-declared (eg. environmentalism or libertarianism), while ideology is also used (often pejoratively) to refer to an unconscious set of ideas, practices and beliefs that are characteristic of a particular group but which are not held openly - for instance, many critics of capitalism think of it more as an unconscious delusion or a box which a person cannot think outside of. Marx, for instance, sees social ideology as being a superstructure that is heavily determined by the economic base of a particular society, rather than as something that is freely chosen.