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IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY
Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012, Hegemony, Ideological Hegemony,
Ideological hegemony arises in a situation where a particular ideology is
pervasively reflected throughout a society in all principal social institutions and
permeates cultural ideas and social relationships.
IDEOLOGY
A linked set of ideas and beliefs that act to uphold and justify an existing or desired
arrangement of power, authority, wealth and status in a society.
A socialist ideology advocates the transformation of society from capitalism to
collective ownership and economic equality.
A liberal ideology associated with capitalist societies upholds that system as the
best, most moral, most desirable form of social arrangement.
Patriarchal ideology also has this characteristic of asserting claims and beliefs
that justify a social arrangement: in this case, male social domination of women.
A racist ideology claiming that people can be classified into distinct races and
that some races are inferior to others. Racist ideologies are used as justifications for
systems of slavery or colonial exploitation.
Although there is often a dominant ideology in a society, there can also be
counter-ideologies that advocate transformation of social relationships.
Controversy and Ideological Hegemony in Sociological Theory
Mark L. Wardell , Ellsworth R. Fuhrman, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University
ABSTRACT: Sociological theory has been characterized by the recurrence of several
controversies since its inception. The relationship between the individual and society
represents one of these. Cooley's notion of the individual and society being twin-born has
been labeled one of the major breakthroughs in this controversy. According to Tiryakian,
Cooley's work signaled the end of that controversy, but still it reappears. Drawing
heavily from Mannheim, Berger and Pullberg, and Therborn, we examine the recurrence of the
individual versus society controversy. Sociology, we contend, occupies an alienated
position within capitalist society where positivist epistemology serves as an ideological
veil, concealing the existence of ontological presuppositions, distorting social reality,
and preventing any meaningful attempt to understand the development of sociology, or the
recurrence of the individual-society controversy. As an ideological veil, positivism
contributes to the recurring bifurcation of social reality. The dominance of positivism
within sociology, moreover, gives it a hegemonic status, further negating any recognition
that the individual and society are interdependent.
Ideological Hegemony and Global Governance
Thomas Ford Brown, Johns Hopkins University, tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
Cite: Brown, Thomas Ford. (1997). "Ideological Hegemony and Global Governance."
Journal of World-Systems Research 3: 250 - 258.
In After Liberalism, Wallerstein argues that liberalism is in decline, both as a system
and as a hegemonic discourse (Wallerstein, 1995). He holds that those dissatisfied with
the liberal consensus have, since 1989, turned to free-market rhetoric as an alternative,
but he dismisses this movement as not "serious" (242). He holds that since the
collapse of Communism, no hope for liberation remains that can tame the world's working
class, and that liberalism cannot consequently survive.
I would argue that free-market ideology is more potent than Wallerstein allows, and that
laissez-faire libertarian utopianism could conceivably prove as seductive to a
disillusioned working class as socialist utopianism was during the early 20th century.
Libertarian sympathies and ideology are easily exploited by non-believers as a means of
extending the status quo. "Minarchist" rhetoric upholding small government is
commonly appropriated by politicians who have no intention of implementing a full
libertarian program. The writings of Hayek and Nozick lend an aura of intellectual
respectability to expedient "down-sizing" measures. The more strident, emotional
writings of Ayn Rand and the other libertarian popularizers speak to a falling
middle-class, telling them that the poor deserve their fate, that taxation for welfare and
other unpopular government programs constitutes theft, and that selfishness is a virtue.
Such distractions could conceivably succeed in the short run, which in world-historical
time could last generations.
In this paper, I speak to "libertarianism" as it is understood in the United
States: as a fiscally conservative and socially liberal political philosophy that upholds
individual liberties and individual property rights above all other ideals. As such,
libertarianism functions as the philosophical justification for Chicago school economic
policy--for, in addition to the economic argument in favor of efficiency, libertarian
philosophy adds a moral dimension that idealizes individualistic, instrumentally rational
maximizing. Keynsianism can consequently be dismissed not only on technical grounds, but
can also be indicted as morally corrupt.
Ideological Hegemony - Thought Control in American Society -
question-everything.mahost.org/Socio-Politics/thoughtcontrol.html
In June 2003 a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that about 1 in 4 Americans
(incorrectly) believed Iraq had used weapons of mass destruction during the recent war
with the United States. [1] A separate poll in the same month found that 34% of Americans
believed the United States had already found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. [2] In
September another poll found that 69% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was personally
involved in 9-11. [3] Even the Bush administration has been forced to admit that these
claims are not true. These misconceptions are the outcome of a system of thought control
called ideological hegemony. Hegemony operates through many mechanisms including the
media, education system, newspeak and others with the primary function of maintaining
support for the dominant socio-economic system in the United States.
In all class societies, the ruling class can maintain control through violence and/or
ideology. If the majority can be persuaded that the rule of the ruling class is legitimate
then it can be maintained with less violence. Examples of ideologies that serve this
function include the divine right of kings, social Darwinism and Marxism-Leninism. All of
them acted to legitimize the rule of specific elites in certain societies and helped those
elites maintain power. Some hierarchical societies rely more on violence, others rely more
on ideology. The United States relies more on ideology, although a certain degree of force
is used.
In Russia prior to 1905 there were a number of large peasant revolts over the centuries
that could have potentially threatened the power of the monarchy. However, all such
revolts did not see the monarchy as the problem. They assumed that it was various
“bad apples” which caused their problems, not the social system. The rebels
believed the oppressive actions the monarchy took were the result of bad advisers, corrupt
officials or other glitches in the system - but never the outcome of having a monarchy.
This belief that the monarchy was not to blame, the system just needed a few reforms,
helped prevent the system from being overthrown as most rebellions against the monarchy
didn’t seek to overthrow it. The monarchy did not fall until after most stopped
believing that the problems were the result of “bad apples” rather than being
inherent in a monarchical system.
Ideological hegemony in the United States operates in a similar manner. Critics play an
important role in perpetuating ideological hegemony. Hegemony is the result of the way the
media, education system and other institutions are set up and have evolved. The power
elite, have far greater power, wealth and prestige than those below them.
The kind of ideological hegemony that operates in America is different from the mechanisms
used by totalitarian states to maintain control. Totalitarian societies tend to rely more
on violence to control the population, although they usually also have an ideology to
support the status quo.
Hegemony operates through many institutions and mechanisms. Hegemony is written into the
very structure of our language, through a process called newspeak. And there are also
other elements to hegemony, but these are the main ones addressed here. In addition, some
of these institutions have functions other than directly reinforcing hegemony. The
education system is a kind of Keynesianism and the media helps create artificial scarcity,
for example. These other functions are not examined here, the focus is on how each of
these institutions acts to create and reinforce ideological hegemony.
Government regulations can also act to pressure private schools to reproduce bourgeois
ideological hegemony.
During the First World War the government found that if they could convince the educated
classes that their war propaganda was true they would further disseminate the propaganda
and help bring the rest of the country around to the government’s position. To this
day the intelligentsia acts in a similar manner. If they can be kept indoctrinated then it
will magnify the effects of ideological hegemony.
Newspeak defines the term ‘anarchy’ to mean complete chaos. Anarchy comes from
the greek and literally means ‘no rulers.’ There is a well-developed body of
anarchist theory that advocates not chaos, but a society organized by voluntary
non-hierarchical associations. The equation of anarchy with chaos is nothing more than a
smear used to discredit a radical philosophy. Most who equate anarchy with chaos have read
little or no anarchist theory and do so only because ideological hegemony pushes that
equation (through the media, schools, newspeak, etc.). Several centuries ago democracy
& republics were also equated with chaos, just as anarchy is today.
The idea of “objectivity” is also used to reinforce ideological hegemony. Ideas
and sources outside the liberal-conservative spectrum are dismissed as
“un-objective,” “biased,” “inflammatory” or sometimes
“extremist.” Only the ideas & sources within the liberal-conservative
spectrum are considered “objective.” Sometimes this is also used by groups
within the liberal-conservative spectrum against each other, such as a conservative
denouncing a liberal’s position as “biased” (or vice versa).
Whether liberal-conservative ideas happen to be correct and whether ideological hegemony
exists are two separate issues. Even if it could be shown that a philosophy within the
liberal-conservative spectrum were correct this would not change the fact that there
exists a social system, hegemony, which acts to indoctrinate the populace into believing
in those ideas.
Ideological Hegemony and The Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal - Priyanka
Mahadevia
Abstract: The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal is currently an extremely controversial issue that
faces strong opposition from states who view the deal as a violation of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation treaty, and an exemplification of the U.S.’s inconsistent
participation in the NPT regime. Current analyses of the NPT regime are centered on
identifying actors and policies that are worthy of censure, and that can be held
accountable for the regime’s collapse. My research moves away from this trend by
focusing on a key process, of hegemonic legitimization, in order to add an underemphasized
dimension to our understanding of the problems facing the NPT. In the context of
non-proliferation, the U.S. hegemon utilizes its powerful standing in the regime to forge
an acceptance of its own norm violations, to manufacture consensus by justifying its
actions and policies, and to maintain its hegemony.
Class Domination and Ideological Hegemony - David L. Sallach,
Washington University
Correspondence to Reprints of this article may be obtained by writing to David Sallach,
Department of Sociology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130.
ABSTRACT: Sociological theory poses the issue of whether ideational or coercive factors
provide the central basls of social order. The former view maintains (and requires) that a
value consensus exist in the empirical world; the latter assumes the existence of a ruling
class which dominates the ideational institutions of the society. A preliminary scrutiny
of available evidence suggests that: (1) a value consensus does not exist, and (2) there
is a high concentration of wealth and economic control which appears to extend into vital
political and ideological areas, thereby implying the existence of a dominant or ruling
class. Based upon these conclusions, the concept of ideological hegemony is introduced as
a significant component of a Marxist view of social order. The hegemonic process is
described and available evidence is examined in the areas of political socialization and
mass media. A pattern in which debate and discussion are circumscribed while alternative
values and world views are ignored or suppressed was found to characterize these two
areas. This pattern was seen to provide further support for the Marxist view that an
ideological hegemony imposed by the dominant class is the ideational manifestation of a
social order based upon coercion.
Ideology and Growth Promotion - Bridger, Jeffrey C.; Harp, Aaron J.
Journal of Rural Studies, v6 n3 p269-77 1990
Abstract: Uses ideological hegemony concept to analyze one local elite's efforts to
"sell" community growth. Expands growth ideology research explaining wealth
transfer from public to social elite in local areas. Examines government, media roles of
disseminating "pro-growth" ideology with case studies. Property, progress, and
community identified as central to ideological hegemony.
The Discourse on the Digital Divide: Are We Being Co-opted?
Ilhan Kucukaydin, Elizabeth J. Tisdell, Penn State University - Harrisburg
Abstract: This paper strives to reconstruct the digital divide discourse from a Gramscian
perspective in relation to educators’ role in cultural force in the process of
hegemonic dominance. Educators either serve the interest of ruling elites and help the
maintenance of ideological hegemony or counter-serve hegemonic forces by breaking the
cycle of dehumanization and oppression. In essence, the digital divide discourse and its
popularization were perceived as a product of ideological hegemony. In order to analyze
the digital divide discourse, this paper looked at the current literature related to
digital divide, and then examined technology’s historical relations with the
hegemonic power structure. The contemporary United States society and its dominant
discourse on the digital divide and how other social determinants related to the class
structure are being ignored in the process of approaching this social problem are also
analyzed. Finally the paper discussed how educators need to deal with and challenge
educational inequities in the new alteration process of hegemonic structure that has a
strong dialectical relation with the new technological advancement. This discussion is one
attempt to participate in its rearrangement.
Ideological hegemony meant that the majority of the population accepted what was
happening in society as ‘common sense’ or as ‘the only way of running
society’. There may have been complaints about the way things were run and people
looked for improvements or reforms but the basic beliefs and value system underpinning
society were seen as either neutral or of general applicability in relation to the class
structure of society. Marxists would have seen people constantly asking for a bigger slice
of the cake when the real issue was ownership of the bakery. -
infed.org/thinkers/et-gram.htm.
Hegemony and Historiography: The Politics of Pedagogy - Yvette Claire
Rosser, PhD - A.B.D. - Yvette Claire Rosser is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of
Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Austin. She has a M.A. -South
Asian History and Culture & a B.A. (with honors), in Asian Studies from UT Austin.
Abstract: This paper situates a discussion of the influences of colonialism, nationalism,
and politics on historiography and curriculum development within a comparative study of
the contents of Social Studies textbooks in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. It traces the
impact of colonial policies on pedagogical institutions in South Asia and their subsequent
appropriation by the nationalist discourse. It discusses the ubiquitous implementation of
the 'culture of textbooks,' which simultaneously brought about a loss of status for
teachers and became instruments which reify and replicate class inequalities and religious
and cultural differences by promoting rote learning and reproduction instead of
dialectical inquiry. Education in this critical analysis, becomes a hegemonic tool
mediating between centers of power and the common citizen. This paper also explores the
debates between conservative and progress educational forces in the USA in an attempt to
related these issues to a broader global context.
Heritage Institutions, Resistance, and Praxis - Susan L.T. Ashley
Abstract: Abstract: Heritage institutions traditionally function as subtle hegemonic
devices for the production and public representation of knowledge, meaning, and belonging.
This article looks at the role of public intellectuals called heritage interpreters who
work at heritage institutions as agents of knowledge production. The concept of the public
sphere is considered in relation to Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony, the intellectual,
and praxis to offer an expanded view of communicative production at heritage institutions.
The article explores the interpreter’s role resisting ideological hegemony and
commodification, and in creating spaces and conversations for alternative imaginings of
and struggle toward public knowledge and radical pedagogy.
Religion and the Media in a Battle for Ideological Hegemony: the
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and TV Globo in Brazil, BIRMAN P.; LEHMANN D.
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