Ideology One of the most debated concepts in sociology, ideology may be provisionally defined as beliefs, attitudes and opinions which form a set, whether tightly or loosely related.
Examples are communism, fascism and some varieties of nationalism.
These types of ideologies are frequently oppositional to dominant institutions and play a role in the organization of devotees into sects or parties. Investigation of these sorts of belief typically takes the form of studies of the ideological personality or of the social functions that ideology performs, as in, for example, the industrialization of a society. This conception of ideology is associated with Marxist literature. There are many different usages but the fundamental arguments are, firstly, that the character of ideologies is largely determined by the economic arrangements of a society and, secondly, that in class societies such as capitalism, ideologies are distorted by class interest . The first argument is represented in the notions of base and superstructure and in the idea that membership of a social class determines ideology.