Liberal Ideology Research Articles

Feminism, Capitalism, Death

This piece works as a critique of neoliberal feminist ideology through an analysis of Anna Melyikan’s 2007 film Mermaid. It begins with a close reading of several scenes in the film and how they operate as a criticism or representation of neoliberal post-Soviet existence. Alissa, the protagonist, is subjected to a series of events which shape her life as a post-Soviet woman—these events ultimately lead to her untimely death. The theme of labour, financially, domestically, and sexually, defines Alissa’s life in Moscow. I use a sociological study on Russian post-Soviet self-help literature written for women as the ideological lens to study the film, drawing connections between the events of the film and the real contents of several self-help books, which are analysed and critiqued by the article’s author. The film visualises a patriarchal double-bind where post-Soviet women are expected to be both patriarchally subordinate and independent economic subjects. This paradox is present in the self-help literature. The essay forges a connection between real-life feminist critique and film criticism, exploring how film criticism can be a vehicle for feminist thought. The essay also interrogates ideas of what a feminist text is and how the creation of a feminist text is an act of discursive meaning-making, a relationship to the viewer/reader as opposed to a definitive quality which takes shape during the text’s creation.

Women Friendship in the novel Sula

This article examines the historical and cultural experiences of African-American women through the lens of Black feminist thought, with a focus on Toni Morrison's novel Sula (1973). The research question guiding this study is: How does Sula reflect the complexities of friendship, autonomy, and the quest for empowerment among Black women within a racist and patriarchal society? The study employs a literary analysis method, drawing on the historical context of Black American women’s oppression and the emergence of Black feminist ideology as theorized by scholars like Patricia Hill Collins. Findings reveal that Sula intricately portrays the deep bond between the two protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, against the backdrop of systemic oppression. Their friendship symbolizes the broader struggle of African-American women to navigate personal autonomy within a community shaped by the legacy of slavery. Sula’s defiance of societal norms, particularly in her relationships with men, highlights the challenges Black women face in seeking empowerment and identity in a society that marginalizes them. This study concludes that Sula not only captures the historical context of Black women's experiences but also serves as a significant contribution to the discourse on Black feminist thought, emphasizing the importance of friendship, autonomy, and resistance in the fight for liberation.

Dirty lives, wild birds, clean places, and exceptional health: a critical discourse analysis of Danish and Norwegian news coverage of avian influenza risk

Avian influenza outbreaks are recurring worldwide. In Norwegian and Danish media, fluctuating attention has been paid to these outbreaks and the coverage that exists largely portrays the situation as a distant problem, limited to so-called non-Western countries. In the present article, we have analysed news articles from two Norwegian and two Danish newspapers published in 2006/2008, 2017 and 2021 using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). By analysing linguistic articulations of risk and blame for avian influenza in Norwegian and Danish media, we explore how this portrayal creates discursive distinctions between risk and blame ‘here’ in Europe and ‘there’ in Asian and African countries. We discuss these discursive contrasts in light of Bergamo’s theory of ideology of health progress and Douglas’ understanding of hygiene as cultural ideas. Our analysis reveals that dominant portrayals of avian influenza in the news media construct particular discourses of blame, risk, and responsibility for disease emergence and spread that are ideologically underpinned by an understanding of disease management, meat production, and animal health in Norway and Denmark as exceptional. We argue that this may have implications for perceptions of places at risk of emergence and spread of viruses and the nature of responses for pandemic preparedness and disease eradication.

“Exploring Gender and Identity in 20th-Century Literature: Feminist Perspectives in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber”

This research investigates the themes of identity and gender in twentieth-century literature, with an emphasis on the role of feminism in Doris Lessing's The Brilliant Notebook )1962) and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber (1979). The research aims to examine how the two writers question and dismantle conventional gender roles, featuring the impact of women's activist ideas in molding female identity inside the setting of the sociopolitical changes of the 20th 100 years. The objectives are to examine the women's perspectives introduced in every text, research the depiction of female independence, and investigate the crossing point of gender, power, and personality in the account structures. The methodology is a relative scholarly examination, using women's activist and gender theory structures to examine the texts. Essential sources, including the two books, are broken down closely by optional academic deals with women's activist scholarly analysis. Key subjects like female freedom, the disruption of man-centric designs, and the rehash of personality are investigated through character development, narrative techniques, and imagery. The outcomes show that both Lessing and Carter utilize their attempts to challenge regulating gender builds, with Lessing's The Brilliant Notebook focusing on the fracture and remaking of female identity, and Carter's The Bloody Chamber utilizing Gothic and fantasy themes to scrutinize conventional gender roles. The conversation underlines how each creator adds to women's activist artistic talk by offering complex, nuanced depictions of ladies who explore, oppose, and eventually reshape the jobs forced upon them by man-centric culture. This study concluded that Lessing and Carter, through their specific strategies, offer tough women's dissident assessments that continue to reverberate in contemporary discussions on gender and identity. Their novels feature the phenomenal ability of writing to test gender principles and advance feminist ideologies. Keywords: Gender, Identity, Feminism, The Golden Notebook, The Bloody Chamber

Ideological narratives of liberalism and socialism

Objective: to compare the ideologies of liberalism and socialism in economic science in the context of the current stage of their evolution. For this purpose, the paper identifies the goals of these ideologies by analyzing the scientific narratives of economists. The study is also aimed at identifying similarities and differences between the ideologies of liberalism andsocialism. Methods: qualitative methods, narrative analysis, review of scientific literature. Results: the comparison of common interpretations of the “ideology” concept in various branches of economics and in other social sciences shows differences in terminology. The comparison of the liberalism and socialism ideologies in economics shows the difference between the declared goals of liberals and socialists. The goal of liberalism ideology is human freedom,and of socialism ideology – distribution equality. The ideologies considered are internally heterogeneous and have evolved over time. At present, liberalism is continued in neoliberalism, which aims at increasing the population wealth rather than freedom as an end in itself. There are non-egalitarian interpretations of the essence of socialism, which reduce it to the economy governmentalization. There are also debates about the advantages of the market over centralized planning in socialism. The extremes of the ideologies of liberalism and socialism can be clearly distinguished, but in practice, many studies take an intermediate position. A common feature of liberalism and socialism is their modernist character and criticism of archaic economic institutions designed to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich. Scientific novelty: it consists in identifying the economic goals proclaimed by the ideologies of liberalism and socialism, based on the analysis of the relevant theoretical narratives in scientific literature. Practical significance: it is determined by the need to understand the factors influencing the economists’ worldview. Studying the ideologies of liberalism and socialism is useful for understanding the intent of the authors of recommendations for improving the institutions of the modern Russian economic order.

Theoretical and Practical Issues of Governing Elite Functioning in Russia

Based on a comparative analysis of the study of the Russian elite we consider current theoretical and practical issues related to the conditions and processes characterizing the activities of the elite. The study subjects are: clarifying the concept of “elite”, assessing the instability of the state and the presence of elements of the structural transformation of elites; revealing the features of the formation of Soviet and post-Soviet elites, the mechanisms of their renewal based on plutocracy, professionalization, consolidation of a synthetic type of mobility, readiness for change. The research focuses on understanding the elite as a social community with signs of mentality, worldview, and ideology. We reveal the role of conservative and liberal ideologies in the formation of state ideology and its significance for the Russian elite in the context of confrontation with the collective West.

Is Progressive Ideology on the Test? Education and Intelligence in the Development of Nontraditional Attitudes.

Enhanced educational attainment and intelligence are consistent correlates of socially liberal, nontraditional attitudes. However, it is unclear how such associations unfold developmentally. Here, we propose an interaction effect between college exposure and intelligence on the development of nontraditional attitudes. Our rationale builds from the fact that a desired learning outcome of college education is to challenge traditional dogma and encourage diverse perspectives. Those with higher intellectual ability should be particularly adept at understanding the intended lesson and to show attendant increases in nontraditional attitudes. Data on social attitudes were obtained in a large community sample of youth at age 17 and remeasured at two points in early adulthood (N = 2,769). Intelligence was linked with growth in nontraditional attitudes among those with higher educational attainment; no such association was observed among individuals who never attended college. Environments that encourage critical inquiry may thus steer brighter individuals toward the adoption of progressive worldviews.

Leadership in international populism: How Viktor Orbán’s Hungary shows the way

Although a burgeoning literature explores the international dimensions of populism, we still know little about how populist leaders gain international popularity. This paper describes how Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, has emerged as the role model of international right-wing populism. It demonstrates that Orbán actively supplied himself as an example that like-minded politicians should follow. We draw on the concept of legitimation strategies to illustrate why Orbán markets himself as the leader of an international movement against liberal ideologues (Wajner, 2022). At the same time, populists in many countries have searched abroad for a successful model to follow. Orbán’s anti-migration policies and his defense of conservative family values constitute chapters of an illiberal playbook that right-wing populists are eager to implement. We use the concept of authoritarian learning to develop this demand-side perspective (Hall and Ambrosio, 2017). Empirically, we demonstrate our argument through an analysis of speeches delivered at a leading gathering of right-wing populists and moral conservatives: the Hungarian editions of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that took place in Budapest in 2022 and 2023.

Federal fractals: review of Stephen Tierney, The Federal Contract

Stephen Tierney’s new book presents an exciting new theory of federal constitutionalism. His core argument is that each federal constitution is founded on a ‘federal contract’, which is an agreement among a plurality of territorial communities to form a federal political community while retaining their distinct constitutional identity as constituent states. This offers an alternative to the ‘social contact’ of liberal political theory in which the isolated individual is the sole basic unit of the constitutional order. The explanatory power of Tierney’s thesis is impressive. He shows how the idea of the federal contract can be manifested in many varied forms but in a manner that recognises the constitutional status and autonomy of the constituent states, formed into an association under which they agree to act cooperatively with each other and with the federation as a whole, under a mutual commitment of reciprocity that underwrites inter-governmental cooperation and solidarity, while also maintaining inter-governmental distinctiveness and autonomy. Under the auspices of this simple and elegant idea, Tierney offers an account of federal constitutionalism that resembles the fractal patterns of mathematical geometry insofar as each federal system reflects a particular federating logic that drives its initial creation and ongoing evolution. This opens up a promising area of further research involving an ever-closer examination of federal systems to see whether the fractal-like patterns he has identified continue to be apparent at progressively higher levels of resolution.

Discursive and institutional standards of justice in the modern world-system

In the article the essence of standards of justice in the modern world-system is outlined in a general way. It is shown that these standards emerged in the European capitalist world-economy in consequence of the French Revolution. Standards of justice are interpreted as ideological semantic constructions that have been institutionalized simultaneously with establishment, first, of the ideology of liberalism as the geoculture of the modern world-system and, second, — of model of liberal state. Standards of justice are considered within theoretical theses and methodological guiding lines of I. Wallerstein's theory of the modern world-system. However, some theoretical theses of J. Alexander's civil society theory are also used to supplement and concretize considered in the article problems with some new arguments. For instance, Alexander's conceptual toolkit helped to distinguish discursive and institutional standards of justice. Reasons and peculiarities of establishment of standards of justice are considered and role these standards played in the providing of development of the modern world-system is shown. In particular, it is elucidated that owing to these standards elites of the core countries of the modern world-system managed to redirect the rebellion energy of the lower strata from antisystemic revolutions to struggle for inclusion to liberal state. This helped to calm the lower strata down and to guard structures of the modern world-system against essential damages. Standards of justice contributed to legitimation of social order of the modern world-system. Full integration of the lower strata to newly created national societies reinforced social solidarity, and this strengthened the core states even more. It is shown that for today in particular countries of periphery and semi-periphery trends of revision of current standards of justice and their replacement by alternative semantic constructions become visible.

Research on the Cognition of Generation Z University Students on Contemporary Feminist Ideologies in the Context of the Digital Society

This study, set against the backdrop of the digital society, focuses on the cognition of Generation Z university students regarding contemporary feminist ideologies. It aims to understand how these students comprehend, accept, and practice feminist concepts amidst the digital wave, and how these concepts influence their social perspectives and behavioral patterns. Through methods such as surveys, in-depth interviews, and online forum analysis, the research systematically collected cognitive data on Generation Z university students understanding of feminist ideologies. The goal is to deepen the understanding of Generation Zs gender concepts and attitudes towards feminism, offering new perspectives and approaches for promoting gender equality and social justice, as well as providing valuable references and insights for future feminist education and research.

Women's Education and Social Transformation in the Ottoman Press: The Example of the Second Constitutional Era

This study explores the discourse on women's education and social transformation in the Ottoman press during the Second Constitutional Period, focusing on how women's roles were conceptualized and debated in the context of national modernization efforts. Utilizing qualitative content analysis of periodicals from 1908 to 1918, the research examines the narratives presented in women's magazines and broader journalistic outputs that addressed the themes of education, social participation, and gender norms. The findings highlight the press's dual role as both a reflector and a shaper of public opinion and policy concerning women's roles in society. Notably, the period saw an increased advocacy for women's rights, education, and participation in the public sphere, reflecting a significant shift towards feminist ideologies within the Ottoman intellectual community. The study concludes that the Second Constitutional Period was crucial in redefining women's societal roles, with the press playing a key role in promoting educational reforms and advocating for gender equality. This period set the stage for future advancements in women's rights in Turkey, making it a foundational era for the subsequent feminist movements in the Turkish Republic. Keywords: Ottoman Empire, Second Constitutional Period, women's education, social transformation, feminist movements, Ottoman press

Close to Home: Suburbanization, Residential Segregation, and Jewish-Black Relations in St. Louis Park and North Minneapolis, MN

This study examines the suburbanization of Minneapolis’ Jewish community during the postwar period, focusing on the ethnic enclave of North Minneapolis and the Jewish ethnoburb of St. Louis Park. It argues that as part of this process, Jewish leaders adopted a strategy of self-discipline, in which they would go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that instances of Jewish racism and other actions that threatened the community’s White, middle-class, and liberal image did not become public knowledge. Minneapolis Jews’ liberal ideology and self-disciplinary practices clashed with the increasingly public and confrontational tactics of the city’s Black liberation movement, facilitating a series of conflicts between Blacks and Jews in the neighborhood during the late 1960s. Jews, conditioned by postwar liberalism not to see how institutional racism affected their Black neighbors, interpreted these conflicts through the same lens they had applied to their experiences with prewar anti-semitism.

Subsidiarity, sphere sovereignty, and state sovereignty

An important question for liberal political theory is whether its account of political morality is compatible with religious political thought. This paper examines one aspect of that broad question, namely the compatibility of the Christian pluralist tradition with liberalism's account of state sovereignty. According to Cécile Laborde, a central commitment of liberalism—and perhaps its most radical—is the claim that the state possesses a form of sovereignty that she dubs ‘competence-competence’. This refers to the state's meta-jurisdictional authority to decide the areas of competence of associations within it. The Christian pluralist tradition, in contrast, emphasises the independent authority of various kinds of social groups and the external limits this places on the state. The paper argues that, despite appearances to the contrary and the claims of many pluralist thinkers, these two views are compatible. It does so through a detailed examination of the two main strands of Christian pluralism, namely subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty, and by comparing pluralists’ and liberals’ approaches to the regulation of religious groups.

Feminist Ideologies at Work: Culture, Collectivism, and Entrepreneurship among Disadvantaged Women in India

This study explores the role of feminist ideologies in enabling entrepreneurship among disadvantaged women in societies entrenched in structures of patriarchy. The study draws on evidence from Lijjat, a women’s cooperative in India. Through careful consideration of the context and relations in which marginalized women were able to initiate, develop, and successfully grow a business, results draw two key conclusions. First, pragmatist feminist ideologies are particularly supportive of women’s economic activities in a patriarchal context. Second, ideological influences on women’s entrepreneurship exist both at the individual level (motivation) and at the collective level (organizational practices). Studying the intersection of these tiers enables a better understanding of how women’s entrepreneurship at the grassroots level can be supported in male-dominated cultures. HIGHLIGHTS Patriarchal norms limit disadvantaged women’s entrepreneurial opportunities in India. Lijjat, a women’s cooperative, provides insight into the role of feminist ideologies in empowering women. Pragmatist feminist ideologies encourage women to challenge traditional norms through entrepreneurship. These ideologies shape both individual motivations and collective organizational practices at Lijjat. Supporting women’s cooperatives can improve women’s economic participation and empowerment.

Western Feminism and Indian Feminism: A Comparative Study

Feminism is a comprehensive movement that aims to address diverse manifestations of injustice and promote the rights of women. Despite their diverse nature, women's movements around the world express shared concerns regarding reproductive, political and legal rights. The primary objective of feminism is to emancipate women from various forms of mistreatment and foster global collaboration among women. However, there remains a substantial discrepancy in the quality of life experienced by women in economically impoverished nations in the Global South compared to those in economically prosperous countries in the Global North. Women residing in the economically developed regions of the world known as the Global North tend to benefit from capitalism and the global economy. Conversely, women living in the economically disadvantaged regions of the world known as the Global South typically encounter poverty and challenging working conditions. Indian feminism highlights the equal significance of economically exploitative behaviors, racism and gender discrimination as key issues. Indian feminism is considered more comprehensive than other forms of feminism since it places equal importance on both reproductive and productive responsibilities. The objective of this research is to examine the discrepancies between Western and Indian feminist ideology specifically focusing on the challenges associated with the adoption of Western ideals in India particularly the concept of essentialism. This research also examines the impact of increasing inequality on systems that depend on male involvement as well as the philosophical concerns associated with feminism in both Western and Indian settings. In order to illuminate the intricacies and subtleties present in these two prominent feminist traditions, the study employed a qualitative comparative analysis to emphasize discrepancies in the objectives of feminist groups regarding gender equality and women's empowerment.

Cinematic Activism and Tasmania’s Lake Pedder: How Film Shaped Environmental History

Film has played a seminal role in Australian environmental history, as an instrument of advocacy to shape political disputes and government actions. Such cinematic activism originated in the 1960s with the dispute over the damming of Tasmania’s iconic Lake Pedder. Here, documentary filmmaking was used by the protagonists to influence public opinion and convey rival views of the remote wilderness lake. For conservationists, film helped build an emotional connection and sense of place, whilst for pro-dam proponents, film helped curate an ideology of economic progress. The protagonists’ mutually reinforcing tactics, especially the intermediary role of the Tasmanian Department of Film Production, combined with the outstanding beauty of Lake Pedder, drove the turn to cinematic activism. Understanding how these films were produced and screened is also important to appreciating their significance for cinematic activism.

Preserving choice: weaving femininity and autonomy through egg freezing discourse on Xiaohongshu

ABSTRACT This paper provides a critical investigation into the discourse of egg freezing on Xiaohongshu, a prominent social media platform in China, to uncover the complexities of female identity, reproductive autonomy, and consumer narratives within this context. Employing Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), it examines the discursive construction of self by single Chinese women who share their egg freezing experiences online. This study scrutinizes the semiotic resources utilized in these narratives, including textual and visual elements, to reveal how individuals craft their identities in relation to emerging reproductive technologies. The analysis identifies dominant themes in the discourse, such as ‘negotiation of motherhood’, ‘women’s empowerment’, and ‘technologization of egg freezing’, juxtaposing these against the backdrop of China’s market socialism and shifting social attitudes. By engaging with the posts of Xiaohongshu bloggers, the research dissects how these women articulate their journeys, challenging traditional paradigms and contributing to ongoing debates about women’s rights and feminist ideologies in the context of advanced reproductive technologies.

How to think about the instrumental politics of mass rape: a critical appraisal of feminist approaches

ABSTRACT Mass rape and other forms of sexual violence in ethnic conflict, as their incidence in Bosnian and Kosovo wars in former Yugoslavia showed in the 1990s, cannot be relativised along some strategy of either ‘victimization’ or ‘everyone is guilty’ within an antiquated framework of ethnic-religious hatred. In this case as in others, the local notions of honour and blood cannot be taken uncritically to be binding cultural traits that ought to determine social behaviour. Incidentally, they cannot either account for a structured ideology of ‘men’s war against women’, or for a postmodern feminist ideology of gender and the moral panic of a ‘patriarchal dream-order’ restored. In this article, I offer a critical appraisal of the stereotyped and relativising accounts of feminist and human rights scholars, a critique very much needed for an anthropological approach attentive to cultural ideology and activism. To understand the effectiveness of mass rape in a military strategy of ethnic cleansing, I suggest local cultural concepts and moral relativist ideas are not culturally given, but instrumental resources deliberately mobilised.

Distrusting the Process: Electoral Trust, Operational Ideology, and Nonvoting Political Participation in the 2020 American Electorate.

This article explores the relationships between electoral trust, operational ideology, and nonvoting political participation (NVP) during the 2020 US presidential election cycle. We hypothesize that: (1) more liberal operational ideology is associated with more NVP, (2) less electoral trust is associated with more NVP, and (3) operational ideology moderates the negative relationship between electoral trust and NVP. Using data from the 2020 American National Election Study (N = 8,280), our contribution is threefold: We first add to previous research that indicated liberals engage in more NVP than conservatives. We then provide some of the first evidence to suggest that electoral trust-in this case, trust prior to the 2020 election-is negatively associated with NVP. Results further indicate that the negative relationship between electoral trust and NVP is strongest among those with conservative operational ideology, such that the more trust those with conservative operational ideology have in the election, the less they engage in NVP. Given that electoral trust is crucial for a well-functioning democracy, the implication is that elites with a strategic incentive to express contempt for the election process can have direct and downstream consequences on political participation.