Political Ideologies in Critical Times

Abstract

In the face of the profound transformations of contemporary democracies, characterized by populism, the crisis of the rule of law and a lack of trust of citizens in institutions, growing social inequalities and illiberal tendencies, political sociology must necessarily also analyze the transformations associated with political ideas and cultures. In such a scenario of radical change, it is appropriate to ask: which systems of ideas, values, beliefs, and symbols guide political actors in this framework of crisis? In the 1990s, many scholars argued in favor of the hypothesis of the "end of ideologies”. On the contrary, today political sociology and political science have gone back to discussing the issue from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The long populist phase and the crisis of liberal democracies have led to an ideological reconfiguration at both international and national levels. Moreover, with the war in Ukraine, a new phase of hegemonic and ideological conflicts between political powers has been ushered in. At the same time, the study of political ideologies has been preserved over time by the morphological approach promoted by Michael Freeden, who defined ideologies as “a set of ideas, beliefs, values, and opinions, exhibiting a recurring pattern, that competes deliberately as well as unintentionally over providing plans of action for public policy making in an attempt to justify, explain, contest, or change the social and political arrangements and processes of a political community" (Freeden, 2001). The issue of ideologies is again crucial because of the political crises of recent years. The current and recent crises are a driver for the reconfiguration of political ideologies as well as for the return of ideologies as a tool of political struggle. We invite proposals for contributions on the following and related issues: 1) National ideologies and global ideologies; 2) New conservatism, new progressivism, new ideological families (i.e: green ideologies, sovereignism, feminism); 3) Micro-ideologies, host-ideologies, thin ideologies; 4) Tools, networks and actors of ideological production; 5) Geopolitical conflicts and ideological competition.

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