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Ideology is often perceived as an instrument used by a group of people to secure its domination over others. It is used to disguise certain aspects of social reality. I want to bring forward another dimension of ideology, a positive dimension that makes it a necessary component of the affirmation, and therefore the births, of social groups. To do this, I wish to supplement French philosopher Claude Lefort's analysis of ideology with the addition of a few ideas inspired by the work of one of his peers, Paul Ricoeur. Lefort, a reader of Marx, focuses essentially on the dissimulative dimension of this phenomenon. By doing so, he does not take into consideration its role in the construction of social imaginaries. I wish to argue that this positive aspect of ideology, acknowledged by Ricoeur, plays an essential role in the democratic experience, as long as the ideological discourse remains visible for everyone. Even when this discourse presents itself solely as an instrument of domination used by a class in order to preserve its own interests, it sustains the internal logic of democracy. By establishing itself as the main discourse of authority, its legitimacy will undoubtedly be put into question in the course of the democratic competition for power. It nourishes this competition. I feel that the study of this movement of ideology between affirmation and dissimulation can even offer new solutions to the crisis of the social imaginary diagnosed by Lefort during the 1970s, when he wrote his essays on ideology. Adapted from the source document.