List of political ideologies

List of political ideologies

In political science, a political ideology is a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order.

A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. Some political parties follow a certain ideology very closely while others may take broad inspiration from a group of related ideologies without specifically embracing any one of them.

An ideology's popularity is partly due to the influence of moral entrepreneurs, who sometimes act in their own interests. Political ideologies have two dimensions: (1) goals: how society should be organized; and (2) methods: the most appropriate way to achieve this goal.

An ideology is a collection of ideas. Typically, each ideology contains certain ideas on what it considers to be the best form of government (e.g. autocracy or democracy) and the best economic system (e.g. capitalism or socialism). The same word is sometimes used to identify both an ideology and one of its main ideas.

For instance, socialism may refer to an economic system, or it may refer to an ideology that supports that economic system. The same term may also refer to multiple ideologies, which is why political scientists try to find consensus definitions for these terms.

For example, while the terms have been conflated at times, communism has come in common parlance and in academics to refer to Soviet-type regimes and Marxist–Leninist ideologies, whereas socialism has come to refer to a wider range of differing ideologies which are most often distinct from Marxism–Leninism.

Political ideology is a term fraught with problems, having been called "the most elusive concept in the whole of social science".

While ideologies tend to identify themselves by their position on the political spectrum (such as the left, the centre or the right), they can be distinguished from political strategies (e.g. populism as it is commonly defined) and from single issues around which a party may be built (e.g. civil libertarianism and support or opposition to European integration), although either of these may or may not be central to a particular ideology. Several studies show that political ideology is heritable within families.

The following list is strictly alphabetical and attempts to divide the ideologies found in practical political life into several groups, with each group containing ideologies that are related to each other. The headers refer to the names of the best-known ideologies in each group.

The names of the headers do not necessarily imply some hierarchical order or that one ideology evolved out of the other. Instead, they are merely noting that the ideologies in question are practically, historically, and ideologically related to each other.

As such, one ideology can belong to several groups and there is sometimes considerable overlap between related ideologies. The meaning of a political label can also differ between countries and political parties often subscribe to a combination of ideologies.

Anarchism

List of political ideologies

Anarchy symbol

• Anarkismo (platformism and specifism) • Informal Anarchist Federation (insurrectionary anarchism) • International of Anarchist Federations (synthesis anarchism) • International Confederation of Labor (anarcho-syndicalism and revolutionary syndicalism) • International Workers' Association (anarcho-syndicalism)

Opposition

• Anti-anarchism • Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism

Opposition

• Anti-authoritarianism • Anti-monarchism • Monarchomachs • Decolonization

Communitarianism

Regional variants

• Kibbutz • Obshchina • Singapore • Zadruga

Communism

List of political ideologies

The Hammer and sickle symbol

Libertarian

An Anarchist A laid over a Communist Hammer and sickle.

Opposition

• Anti-communism • McCarthyism • Pinochetism • Anti-Marxism • Anti-socialism

Religious variants

• Christian communism • Bruderhofs • Diggers • Hutterites • Shakers • Islamic communism • Nasakom • Jewish communism

Oceanian

• Australia • New Zealand

Conservatism

List of political ideologies

• International Democrat Union (conservatism) • International Monarchist League (monarchism)

Corporatism

Religious variants

• Christian corporatism • Distributism

Democracy

List of political ideologies

Symbol of Democracy(1)

Symbol of Democracy(2)

Opposition

• Anti-democratism

Christian democracy

• Centrist Democrat International (Christian democracy) • Christian Democrat Organization of America (Christian democracy)

General

• Distributism • Social credit movement • Gremialismo • Popularism

Other

• Christian democracy • Islamic democracy • Jewish democracy • Theodemocracy

African

• Egypt • Morocco

Environmentalism

List of political ideologies

• Friends of the Earth (environmentalism) • Global Greens (green politics) • World Ecological Parties (bright green environmentalism)

Opposition

• Anti-environmentalism • Wise use movement

African

• South Africa

American

• United States

European

• Switzerland

Oceanian

• Australia • New Zealand

Fascism

List of political ideologies

• World Union of National Socialists (Nazism)

African

• Rwanda • South Africa • Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging • Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging • Togo • Zaire

Oceanian

• Australia • New Zealand • Neo-Nazism

Identity politics

List of political ideologies

• International Council of Women (feminism) • Minority Rights Group International (minority rights) • Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (indigenous rights and self-determination)

Oceanian

• Australia • New Zealand

Black

• Black nationalism • Garveyism • Black separatism • Black supremacism • Black Feminism

White

• White nationalism • White separatism • White supremacism • White feminism

European

• Belgium • Bosnia, and Herzegovina • Georgia • Separatism in Chechnya • Separatism in Dagestan • Separatism in Tatarstan • Separatism in Ural • Serbia • Spain • Basque separatism • Catalan separatism • Ukraine • United Kingdom

Oceania

• Australia • Tasmania

Gender

• Feminist separatism • Lesbian separatism • Homonationalism • Matriarchy • Patriarchy

General

• Anarchist free school movement • Student activism

Liberalism

List of political ideologies

• Liberal International (liberalism) • Transnational Radical Party (radicalism)

Opposition

• Anti-liberalism • Illiberal democracy

Oceanian

• Australia • New Zealand

Libertarianism

List of political ideologies

• Center for a Stateless Society (left-libertarianism) • International Alliance of Libertarian Parties (right-libertarianism) • International of Anarchist Federations (anarchism) • International Union for Land Value Taxation (Georgism) • Liberty International (right-libertarianism)

Opposition

• Anti-libertarianism

Religious variants

• Christian libertarianism • Libertarian Christianity

European

• United Kingdom • Anarchism • Anarcho-communism • Anarcho-naturism • Individualist anarchism • Thatcherism

Oceanian

• Australia • Anarchism • Anarcho-technocracy

Nationalism

List of political ideologies

• International Conference of Asian Political Parties (pan-Asianism and regionalism) • The Movement (neo-nationalism and right-wing populism) • Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (nationalism and self-determination)

Oceanian

• Australia • New Zealand • Māori • South Island

Populism

List of political ideologies

• Foro de São Paulo (democratic socialism, left-wing populism, social democracy and socialism of the 21st century) • The Movement (neo-nationalism and right-wing populism) • Progressive International (democratic socialism, left-wing populism, progressivism and social democracy)

Oceanian

• Australia • One Nation Party • New Zealand • New Zealand First

Progressivism

List of political ideologies

• Progressive Alliance (progressivism and social democracy) • Progressive International (democratic socialism, left-wing populism, progressivism and social democracy)

General

• Economic progressivism • Social progressivism • Techno-progressivism • Transnational progressivism

Other

• Progressive conservatism • Reform movement • Social justice movement • Technocracy movement

Religious variants

• Islamic progressivism • Progressive Christianity

Religio-political ideologies

List of political ideologies

• Centrist Democrat International (Christian democracy) • Hizb ut-Tahrir (Islamism) • Humanist International (humanism) • Muslim Brotherhood (Islamism)

Political atheism and agnosticism

• Atheist feminism • Marxist–Leninist atheism • Secular humanism • Secular liberalism • State atheism

Political Baháʼí Faith

• New world order (Baháʼí) • Opposition

Political Confucianism

• Neo-Confucianism • New Confucianism

Political Shinto

• State Shinto • Showa Statism

Political Sikhism

• Khalistan movement • Sikh feminism

Political Taoism

• Huang–Lao • Way of the Five Pecks of Rice • Way of the Taiping

Satirical and anti-politics

General

• Abstentionism • Anti-Centrism • Apoliticism

Other

• Anti-politics • Dark Enlightenment • Nihilistic violent extremism • Populism

Social democracy

List of political ideologies

• Foro de São Paulo (democratic socialism, left-wing populism, social democracy and socialism of the 21st century) • Progressive Alliance (progressivism and social democracy) • Progressive International (democratic socialism, left-wing populism, progressivism and social democracy) • Socialist International (democratic socialism and social democracy)

Opposition

• Anti-welfarism • Lemon socialism • Social fascism

Oceanian

• Australia • Melanesia • New Zealand

Socialism

List of political ideologies

Symbol of Socialism

• African Socialist International (African socialism, Pan-Africanism) • Foro de São Paulo (democratic socialism, left-wing populism and socialism of the 21st century) • Progressive International (democratic socialism, left-wing populism, progressivism and social democracy) • Socialist International (democratic socialism and social democracy) • World Socialist Movement (anti-Leninism, classical Marxism, impossibilism and international socialism)

Syndicalism

List of political ideologies

• International Confederation of Labor (anarcho-syndicalism and revolutionary syndicalism) • International Workers' Association (anarcho-syndicalism)

Transhumanism

List of political ideologies

• Humanity+ (transhumanist politics)

General

• Anarcho-transhumanism • Democratic transhumanism • Libertarian transhumanism