Question 1. Define ideology and explain the four primary functions that it performs.

What does Platos Allegory of The Cave say about the strength, usefulness and dangers of ideology. Answer: Ideology is defined as a fairly coherent, systematic and comprehensive set of ideas that attempts to do four things 1. To explain why social, Political and economic conditions are as they are at any point in history. One tries to explain in their rather problematical world, an explanation to what is going on at the moment. 2. Evaluate the social, Political and economic conditions that exist. Of deciding what is right and wrong, good and bad. 3. Orient people and help them understand their place in society and provide them with a sense of identity and purpose. For example race, sex, nation, and religion can be an orientation to someone, a group they belong to. 4. To provide a program of political action to achieve the best possible society. Explanation, Evaluation, Orientation, and Plan of Action are all the four functions that try to link thought with action. An ideology can determine the severity of the way people act towards society by merely shaping the way they think. Each ideology has a different name, labeling their way of thinking. Over the last 150 years of history there are examples of people committing acts based on their ideologies; - the Oklahoma city bombing, 9/11 etc. Marxism, Nazism, and Liberalism all have different ways of thinking, different ideology. Every ideology identifies the three elements of the triad in its own way the triadic relationship between the Agent, Obstacle and Goal. A liberal will identify the agent as an individual, the goal as the satisfaction of ones desires and the

obstacle as any unreasonable restraint or restriction. A Marxist identifies the agent as an entire class the Proletariat that strives to overcome capitalist exploitation and create a classless society whereas a Fascist regime thinks of the agent as a whole nation or race. (Terrence Ball,2011). Ideology is a social adoption of ideas that explain the way things are. How and why the world really works and should work. Through Ideology people accept or reject the current way of doing things, their understanding or explain what is natural or is perceived as, and accept their role in society. In later years, German communist Karl Marx proclaimed Ideology as a term of abuse. According to Marx, Ideologies and ideologist arise in class divided societies (Terence Ball, 2011, p.5). Marx believed that the class which has the means of material production also controls the means of mental productioni.e. the ruling class. Ideology was further defined by Engels, Lenin as perceived by them and other great thinkers. Ideology in summation is not a concept that denotes some particular phenomenon rather it is an agenda of things to discuss, questions to ask and hypotheses to make. (Terence Ball, 2011, p.11) Plato in his Allegory of the Cave attempts to explain the strength, usefulness and dangers of ideology. Platos Allegory of the Cave presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only reality the slaves know. One day one of the prisoners is released to the real world and begins to discover and educate himself of all the wonderful things that he sees and begins to realize all the horrible lies he has been told of. He then goes to inform the other prisoners of this new world but they do not listen. They try to kill him because he makes them question their truth, their reality that of the shadows. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics. Ideology is the
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threshold of many brilliant discoveries of American history. Many intelligent human beings have valued and studied the ideologies of past philosophers and have contemplated many new ideas to follow and evaluate as well. The four functions of ideology are constantly in use as we continue down the road of the American political ideals and ideologies.

Question 2. Political writers Euripides, Pericles, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Adams, DeTocqueville, and Mill have argued the strengths and weaknesses of democracy and polity/republicanism. Trace the evolution of these arguments and the key points made by the various writers. State and defend your position as to the strengths and weaknesses of democracy. The Ideal and Ideologies: A Reader considers Democracy, not as an ideology, but an ideal that different ideologies define and pursue in different ways and for different reasons. It is widely understood that Democracy means rule by the people but the who and the how to rule find little agreement depending on which group or form of government views it. Euripides condemned despotic government and applauded democracy. This was emulated in his passage in The Suppliants where the Theban Messenger is amazed that democracy exists in the land. Theseus propogates the democratic rule mainly rule by law. Theseus stresses that where laws exist, all people rich and poor, powerful and weak are equal (Ball, p.15). Pericles, whose Funeral Oration was one of the first in defense of democracy as a way of life. Pericles celebrated the ideals of Athenian Democracy. People restrain from doing wrong because of their respect for the laws of the land. Democracy creates a respect for the law, social norms and governmental authority with the people policing themselves. (Schaefer, The legality of democracy). Although Pericles praised Athenian democracy, it was not without its flaws where women, aliens and slaves were disenfranchised and people who spoke unfavorably towards their government were put to death. Plato condemned Athenian democracy. Plato regarded democracy as unstable stating that people were too shortsighted and unruly to govern themselves. Platos theory was that greed would drive the land into anarchy and eventually lead to a despotic government. Platos pupil

Aristotle in The Politics called the best form of government a Polity. The republican idea was that the forms of government must be mixed and distributed among the people some power should be in the hands of the common people, some in the hands of the aristocratic few and some in the hands of a single person. This ensured that no one section of society had total power and agreement and cooperation was essential among the different elements for the greater good of the common interest. The republican form of government was the favored form of governance for centuries after and had its supporters in Machiavelli and John Adams. Machiavelli extols the virtues of a government ruled not by Oligarchy/Monarchy but rather by a republic. For he states that the people have more prudence and stability and better judgement than a prince (p.28). He, however, states that although governments of princes and of the people have withstood the test of time, they both require to be regulated by laws. John Adams in his discourse Thoughts on Government states a republics is the best form of government where a section of society should be the representatives of the government. He feels that the greatest challenge would be selecting the right representation, equal representation. He realized that there would be a clash in the control of power between the legislative and executive power and proposed the formation of a distinct assembly as a mediator or council to represent the people and that is vested with executive power. This seems to be a precursor to how the US government exists today. In latter years, the popularity moved towards a democratic government. This could be due to certain factors such as the growth of cities and industry alongwith improved literacy and growth of communication. Alexis de Tocqueville praised the democratic government through Democracy in America based on his travels in the United States of America. Democracy has its emphasis on equality.

John Mill states that in a democracy each person is afforded the opportunity to defend their own interests. Democracy cannot be solely considered without considering Social democracy where each person can have an equal influence over the government. Peoples democracy or Proletariat which involves rule by and on behalf of the common people or Liberal Democracy where rule by the people must be tempered by ensuring the majority do not impose a tyranny and deprive the minority of their individual rights. Democracy then is a form of government in which power is held by the people under a free electoral system. It describes a political philosophy where all citizens have equal access to power, and where all citizens enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties. Democracy must always be carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power. In a democracy, the will of the people directly impact how the country is run. Democracy affords its people more individual rights and liberties than any other for of government. It also contributes to a healthy and robust economy.

In conclusion, we have witnessed the history of government through the centuriesthrough the various forms of a Monarchy, Oligarchy, Anarchy and Democracy. History has shown that a Democracy is truly the best form of government because it affords its people the right to be heard and to choose their leader.

References
Ball, Terence (2011). Ideals and Ideologies