Ideology Essay -- British Politics

Ideology has played an important part in British politics for centuries. It played a part in the setting up of the three major parties as we know them today. Ideology is difficult to define as it is such as widely and loosely used term. Andrew Vincent as well as many other authors, Vincent describes ideology as, ‘the term ’ideology’ was a neologism compounded from the Greek terms eidos and logos. It can be defined as a ‘science of ideas’ (Vincent: 2009:p.1). Even from this definition it is difficult to fully understand the term ‘ideology’ as it has such a broad definition. The changing nature of British politics in the post-war era contributed to the level of importance that ideology had during this period. The post-war period became none as an era of consensus politics, the post-war consensus has been described by David Marsh as, ‘a distinct policy paradigm which shaped the strategic choices of Britain's leading political actors as they sought to build and then to preserve a 'New Jerusalem' from the damage created by the war’ (Marsh: 1999:p.67) this so called post-war consensus definitely played a part in the removal of ideology from British politics. Although the post-war consensus did remove the importance of ideology in British politics, there were periods within the post-war consensus where new ideologies emerged. Ideology was important in Clement Attlee’s government, which had a socialist policy agenda through the creation of the NHS and the advancement of the welfare state, in the 1980’s through the emergence of Thatcherism, as well as the creation of ‘New Labour’ in 1997 and even the current government can be seen as ideological. This essay will first look at the important role that ideology does have to play, and has play... ...the war. Although there has been times when ideology may be seen as unimportant, such as the post-war consensus, this can be seen as an ideology in itself due to the ambiguity of the term, as Hickson writes, ‘both the Labour and Conservative parties accepted the ideology of social democracy’ (Hickson: 2004: p.143). Therefore it is only fair to say that ideology has been important in British politics in the post-war era. Thatcher, Attlee and Blair were clearly ideologically motivated as their policies showed, but the post-war consensus can also be seen as a period of ideology that the major parties agreed on, and even the current government can be seen as promoting a new kind of ideology of compromise, ideology has and will continue to play an important role in British politics for centuries to come as ideologies adapt and evolve to fit the political circumstances.