Ideology

Ideology is one of the most discussed concepts in critical theory and in social sciences in general. The concept of ideology is highly contested: While classical Marxists argue that ideology is an objective reality that results from unequal class relations, neo-Marxists argue that ideology is created and maintained in superstructure institutions, such as schools, prisons, and media. Cultural studies scholars are interested in understanding how languages are used to create and to maintain ideology. Drawing on cultural studies theorists, feminists aim to find out how the media construct gender ideology for the audience and how the audience uses gender ideology to extract meaning from media texts.

The word ideology was first coined by the French philosopher Destut de Tracy in 1796 to describe the study of ideas. He believed that all ideas are derived from a perception of the physical world. His science of ideas is composed of three parts: ideology, general grammar, and logic. Napoleon later used the word ideologues to ridicule intellectual opponents during his regime, hence giving ideology a negative meaning. De Tracy's concept of ideology, however, did not influence the contemporary understanding of the term.

In German Ideology, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that ideology is used as a mask to distort real social relationships that emerged within the context of industrial capitalism. For them, the mode of production differentiated the ruling class from the working class. The working class sold their labor to capitalists in exchange for wages. Labor was said to be the only capital that the working class had in the market. The capitalists did not share the profits with the workers, instead, they reinvested the profits to buy more labor and machines. Marx saw the market as a sphere of appearances. For workers who sold their labor, the market was a reality because it dictated how much the labor was worth. Marx did not think that the ruling class deliberately “duped” the working class into a false reality, but the objectivity of the market created a false sense of reality. Engels used the term false consciousness to describe the beliefs that the ruling class and the working class had about social relations. The working class believed that they were subordinated because the only capital they had was their own labor. They did not believe that their intellect could be a form of capital. At the same time, the belief of the ruling class—that they were destined to rule because they had greater intellect and skills—also was a form of false consciousness.

Marx's concept of ideology was later modified by neo-Marxists, such as the French philosopher Louis Althusser and the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci. In the face of rising fascism in Europe, Althusser and Gramsci re-conceptualized Marx's economic determinist notion of ideology. Neo-Marxists rejected the idea that the economic sphere (the base) determines other spheres in the superstructure, such as society, politics, and religion. They believed that ideology is created and maintained in the superstructure. Althusser used the term ideological state apparatuses to explain how ideology works. Althusser agreed that the army, the police, and the prison are institutions that stabilize society by controlling social disorder. However, it cannot be overlooked that the school, the society, and the church are also institutions that maintain social order. By spreading the dominant ideology through an “apparatus” like the media, the state can control the society more successfully than it could merely by relying on repressive force. Althusser also coined the term interpellation to explain the process of understanding an ideology. In the process of interpellation, the subject recognizes that he or she is being addressed by an authority figure. For example, if a teacher asks a student to stand up in the classroom and the student does so, the student has recognized himself or herself as the subject of the address. The student thus understands the ideology that the teacher is the authority and hence should be obeyed. If a fellow student asks the same student to stand up in the classroom, the student probably will not acknowledge the request and hence deny being the subject of the address. Similarly, when audience members recognize that an advertisement addresses them, they acknowledge themselves as the subject of the ideology.

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