The Proper Use of Ideology

Terminology alert: Political ideology — a system of belief about how the institutions of society (like governments, economies, companies, families) work at a high level, and how they ought to work

In this post I’m going to explore the value of political ideology and will suggest that the purpose of ideology is to give you answers to political questions that you haven’t had time to ponder in detail.

What would it mean to not have a political ideology? It would mean forming my political opinions on an issue-by-issue basis (assuming you have political opinions at all). At face-value this might sound like a very even-handed position to hold. Without having an overarching narrative about society to believe in, I might be able to interpret the facts of any issue in an unbiased manner. For example, if I’m not predisposed to seeing companies as evil, and I’m also not predisposed to seeing the government as evil, then I can proceed to think rationally about an issue like the minimum wage, and come up with an “unbiased viewpoint”.

Now you should question anyone who has political opinions but claims to have no ideology. Almost everyone has some high-level views about how society ought to be structured (e.g. the government should be doing more, people ought to have more liberty than they do right now). And even if you didn’t have any ideological bias, there are other factors that will cause your thinking to be biased (how you were raised, self-centeredness, loss aversion etc.).

But in general, it’s better to think hard about an issue than to have an opinion based mostly on ideology. The more you  attempt to be informed, thoughtful, and objective in analyzing a particular issue, the more likely you are to be correct.

So if we could all be totally informed, thoughtful, and objective about analyzing every problem in the world, then we’d have no need for ideology. But of course we can’t. I can only know so much, think so much, and overcome my biases to a certain extent. The proper function of ideology is to give me opinions on issues where I haven’t had time to delve deeper. 

Ideology is a useful heuristic for forming rough opinions on a bundle of complex issues. It’s important to understand that ideology will not give me the right answer in many situations. It gives me a starting point, but I need to refine my opinions as I learn more about specific issues. Only by being open to changing my mind can I hope to get closer to understanding how the world works, and how we might make it better.