Ideology

Political ideology is a set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths, or symbols of a social movement, institution, class, or large group that explains how society should work, and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order. Political ideology often concerns itself with questions of how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. In modern political discourse, the term ideology is often used in a pejorative sense, to refer to a political or economic belief system that is held despite empirical evidence to the contrary. Political ideology can be translated to Hebrew as אידאולוגיה פוליטית. In French, it is idéologie politique, in German politische Ideologie, in Spanish ideología política, and in Arabic الأيديلوجيا السياسية (al-āydīlūjiyā al-siyāsiyya). Key contextual information includes the fact that political ideologies have evolved over time, with many of the most influential ones emerging during the Enlightenment and the subsequent French and American Revolutions. These ideologies often address questions of justice, freedom, equality, and authority, and can be broadly categorized into left-wing, right-wing, and centrist ideologies, among others.