What is a Ideology? Political Ideologies followed throughout the World!

Political Ideology – Definition and Types of Ideologies!

Hello Everyone! I am here to write and explain the term ‘Ideology’ in and its Presence in World Politics. Like the way we have personality for an individual, there is an ‘Ideology’ that drives a political party.

If I have to define: Ideology is ideals, beliefs and nature of the political party which form their economic policies. Ideologies are universal and are three in number. They are:

  1. Right Wing
  2. Centre
  3. Left Wing
  • Right Wing: Right-wing ideology says that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural. This Ideology typically supports natural law, economics or tradition. Putting in a simpler way Right Wing Ideology is a very conservative approach. A belief system which says that one should not forget their roots and should believe in the traditional methods and looks at the things the way they are to bring out the logic but not question the existence.
  • Centre Wing: In my words Centrists are the most confused ideologies, usually support equal opportunity and economic freedom. They will generally lean conservative on economic issues and lean liberal on social issues.
  • Left Wing: Socialist Ideology is the best way to define the Left-wing ideology. These people believe in equality for all and form radical, socialist and reform groups. Left wingers normally follow higher tax rates on the wealthy and government spending on social programs, infrastructure and subsidized programs.

Apart from the above three we also Left centre and Right Centre ideologies which carry mixture of Right and Left.

Ideologies and Parties in USA and UK

United States of America is one of the oldest democratic country in the world and is the super power house in the world now. If I speak about the Ideologies and the Parties in USA, there are two big political parties in USA and they are Democrats and Republicans. While Democrats – the party which was headed by Barack Obama in their last two terms in power is a Centre Left Party and Republicans-the ruling party headed by Donald Trump is a Centre Right party. One who follows the US politics will clearly make the differences between the Ideological differences between Obama or Clinton and Donald Trump.

Talking about the UK – United Kingdom has got three parties. Labour party which is a Left Centre party is presently the opposition party, Conservative Party which follows Right Centre ideology is the ruling party and third party is liberal Democrats which falls exactly in Centre ideology. Very recently we have seen Conservative Party winning the elections in UK and that is also a Right Centre party.

Ideologies in India

India the World’s largest democratic government in the world has got two big parties that have been on and off the chair in India. Most of the India’s Government was held by Congress which is a Centre Left party. A party that has ruled India for almost 60 years with one or two breaks since freedom. Though Congress started off as Centrist party, Nehru was off leftist ideology and that’s how his ideology is being followed by congress. One major reform that Congress had taken was the Nationalization of Banks which clearly depicts their Socialist ideology. Only from 1998 to 2004 congress was defeated by newly formed BJP.

BJP is another national party in the country which follows Right Centre ideology. BJP though could not win as many elections as they would’ve wanted and only in the year 1998 they took the power for the first time under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After which they lost it again in 2004 only to win the throne in 2014. So overall in 70 years of Independence BJP could rule only for 6-7 years. This is about the ideologies in the country.

I will explain about the other aspects on how ideologies are used for development of the nation and the difference between community and ideological parties in the coming posts. Until Then, bye!

Published by Sriram

A Teacher trying to Learn new things and explore the world each day! Believe in Happiness by the virtue of sacrifice and forgiveness.

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