Political Ideologies

This course will enable students to acquire a specialised understanding of the ideologies that exist in contemporary politics and society, and to explore scholarly debates in the field of ideology studies. Students will learn to familiarise themselves with key texts in the historical emergence of different ideologies and the methodologies used to analyse them, along with other relevant primary sources, and to evaluate them in terms of their social context.

The course will cover: theories of the concept and study of ideology and ideologies; liberalism; conservatism and Christian democracy; socialism, communism, and social democracy; libertarianism and neoliberalism; fascism and national socialism; anarchism; nationalism, regionalism, and internationalism; green ideology; and ideologies of identity.

Students will also be required to show awareness of how ideologies have affected societies in practice, including how they have shaped historical and contemporary political institutions and public policy.