Do influences at lower levels contribute to a coherent ideological result. What are the ideological implications of influences at lower levels. Hence the study of ideology requires us to investigate the ways in which meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms of various kinds. Sen. McCarthy, e.g., was able to define as deviant anyone who even questioned his activities against communism. U.S. tradition is not to acknowledge the importance of class and elite interests, while these are central to analysts at this level.
Economic relations are the base, ideas are the superstructure.
Marx is a major influence in this area. Here we're not talking about political Marxism, which has been on the wane in Eastern Europe and Russia, but sociological Marxism. Manipulating rather than responding to the public. Political values are made to appear commonsensical, because they appear through the normal workings of the system. The notion of relative autonomy.