Ideology and the Crisis of Capitalism

Abstract

We suspect that such a process of ideological fortification is well underway and this paper represents our effort to partially identify the character of this process. Our paper presents an empirical analysis of ideological voting in U.S. Presidential elections during the post-Reagan period which we will argue in later paragraphs embodies a new incarnation of political ideology. We explore the degree that educational institutions are implicated in the dissemination of ideology by examining voting differences by educational attainment. Education is never purely technical, and presupposes ideological assumptions regarding the individual’s relationship to society, the nature and purpose of individual incentives, the duties and rights of citizenship, and of who ultimately benefits from economic production. Educational institutions are thus characterized by manifold functions that include ideological education, skill development, and socialization (Durkheim, 1956).