Suchergebnisse

I develop a model of ideologies as collectively sustained (yet individually rational) distortions in beliefs concerning the proper scope of governments versus markets. In processing and interpreting signals of the efficacy of public and market provision of education, health insurance, pensions, etc., individuals optimally trade off the value of remaining hopeful about their future prospects (or their children's) versus the costs of misinformed decisions. Because these future outcomes also depend on whether other citizens respond to unpleasant facts with realism or denial, endogenous social cognitions emerge. Thus, an equilibrium in which people acknowledge the limitations of interventionism coexists with one in which they remain obstinately blind to them, embracing a statist ideology and voting for an excessively large government. Conversely, an equilibrium associated with appropriate public responses to market failures coexists with one dominated by a laissez-faire ideology and blind faith in the invisible hand. With public-sector capital, this interplay of beliefs and institutions leads to history-dependent dynamics. The model also explains why societies find it desirable to set up constitutional protections for dissenting views, even when ex-post everyone would prefer to ignore unwelcome news.

This collection of readings on the concept of ideology is brought together by the Marxist critic, Terry Eagleton. His introduction traces the historical evolution of ideology and examines in a more theoretical style the various meanings of the word and their significance. The readings begin with the first English translations of some of the writing of the French founder of the concept in the eighteenth century. They then move from the enlightenment to Hegel and Marxism, with particular emphasis on Marx and Engels themselves. They also look at other eighteenth-century traditions of thought such

I develop a model of ideologies as collectively sustained (yet individually rational) distortions in beliefs concerning the proper scope of governments versus markets. In processing and interpreting signals of the efficacy of public and market provision of education, health insurance, pensions, etc., individuals optimally trade off the value of remaining hopeful about their future prospects (or their children's) versus the costs of misinformed decisions. Because these future outcomes also depend on whether other citizens respond to unpleasant facts with realism or denial, endogenous social cognitions emerge. Thus, an equilibrium in which people acknowledge the limitations of interventionism coexists with one in which they remain obstinately blind to them, embracing a statist ideology and voting for an excessively large government. Conversely, an equilibrium associated with appropriate public responses to market failures coexists with one dominated by a laissez-faire ideology and blind faith in the invisible hand. With public-sector capital, this interplay of beliefs and institutions leads to history-dependent dynamics. The model also explains why societies find it desirable to set up constitutional protections for dissenting views, even when ex-post everyone would prefer to ignore unwelcome news. -- Ideology ; statism ; laissez-faire ; cognitive dissonance ; wishful thinking ; institutions ; political economy ; psychology

A study to test the hypothesis that people's notions of ideal relations among nations correspond structurally with their notions of ideal relations among people. Homogeneous Guttman-type scales measuring 8 diff advocated goals of US foreign policy were constructed & paired a priori with homogeneous scales measuring 8 corresponding interpersonal values. These were administered by questionnaire to a random sample of a U Sbody. The matrix of interr's was analyzed according to a multitrait-multimethod model, which permits comparison of predicted is with non-predicted r's. The hypothesis was generally confirmed. In addition, the internat'I goals were found to cluster in 2 groups, interpreted as cooperative & competitive; but these clusters were not well duplicated in the matrix of interpersonal values. AA.

EXAMINATION OF THE EVOLVING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IDEOLOGY AND SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY REQUIRES THE ANALYSIS OF SYSTEMATIC CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SOVIET DOMESTIC POLITICS AND CHANGING FOREIGN POLICY CONCEPTS. THE NEW THINKING IN SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY ADVOCATED BY MIKHAIL GORBACHEV AND HIS ADVISORS CANNOT BE GRASPED WITHOUT AN UNDERSTANDING OF SOVIET IDEOLOGICAL TERMS OF REFERENCE. NEW THINKING DOES NOT DENOTE DE-IDEOLOGIZATION. RATHER, GORBACHEV'S FOREIGN POLICY EFFORTS INDICATE A MODIFICATION OF THE FUNCTIONS PERFORMED BY IDEOLOGY. THESE MODIFICATIONS HAVE BEEN PROMPTED BY CHANGES IN THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND BY A REASSESSMENT OF DOMESTIC PRIORITIES.

Analyses of the political and ideological transformation of Hizbullah.

The Lebanese Shi'ite resistance movement, Hizbullah, is going through a remarkable political and ideological transformation. Hizbullah was founded in 1978 by various sectors of Lebanese Shi'ite clergy and cadres, and with Iranian backing as an Islamic movement protesting against social and political conditions. Over the years 1984/85 to 1991, Hizbullah became a full-fledged social movement in the sense of having a broad overall organization, structure, and ideology aiming at social change and social justice, as it claimed. Starting in 1992, it became a mainstream political party working within the narrow confines of its pragmatic political program. The line of argument in this dissertation is that Hizbullah has been adjusting its identity in the three previously mentioned stages by shifting emphasis among its three components: (1) from propagating an exclusivist religious ideology (2) to a more encompassing political ideology, and (3) to a down-to-earth political program.