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Reformist Ideology in the Arab World: The Cases of Tunisia and Lebanon*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

John P. Entelis
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Extract

Ideology refers to a set of basic assumptions, both normative and empirical, about the nature and purposes of man and society which serve to explain the human condition. At the political level, it is a belief system through which man perceives, understands, and explains the universe as well as nature and the human community. Ideology also guides individual and collective action, sets forth the political goals one may seek and regulates the ways in which they may be obtained, and defines man's rights, privileges, andobligations. Finally, ideology sets the “parameters of expectations.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , October 1975 , pp. 513 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1975

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References

1 Christenson, Reo M. et al. , Ideologies and Modern Politics (New York, 1972), p. 15Google Scholar. An appreciation of the many meanings of ideology can be gained by referring to Naess, Arne et al. , Democracy, Ideology and Objectivity: Studies in the Semantics and Cognitive Analysis of Ideological Controversy (Oxford1, 1956)Google Scholar; Lane, Robert E., “The Meaning of Ideology,” Power, Participation and Ideology, eds, Larsen, C. L. and Washburn, P. C. (New York, 1969), pp. 321–323Google Scholar; and Ashford, Douglas E., Ideology and Participation (Beverly Hills, Calif., 1972)Google Scholar. While the literature on ideology is gargantuan some noteworthy contributions on the subject include Mannheim, Karl, Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, 1936)Google Scholar; Apter, David E., ed., Ideology and Discontent (New York, 1964)Google Scholar; Gould, James A. and Truitt, Willis H., eds., Political Ideologies (New York, 1973)Google Scholar; Bluhm, William T., Ideologies and Attitudes: Modern Political Culture (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1974)Google Scholar; Sargent, Lyman Tower, Contemporary Political Ideologies: A Comparative Analysis (Homewood, Ill., 1972)Google Scholar; Cox, Richard H., ed., Ideology, Politics, and Political Theory (Belmont, Cal., 1969)Google Scholar; Shaw, L. Earl, ed., Modern Competing Ideologies (Lexington, Mass., 1973)Google Scholar; Germino, Dante, Beyond Ideology (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Mullins, Willard A., “On the Concept of Ideology in Political Science,” American Political Science Review, LXVI (06, 1972), 498–510CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sartori, Giovanni, “Politics, Ideology, and Belief Systems,” American Political Science Review, LXIII (06, 1969), 398–411CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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36 The need to overcome the latent dysfunctionality of chauvinistic regionalism constitutes a popular theme in Bourguiba's speeches and broadcasts. See, for example, “Un peuple uni. Un état authentiquement national,” publication of speech presented at Le Bardo, April 17, 1966.

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39 So named after Salah Ben Youssef, a former general secretary of the Neo-Destour Party and later Bourguiba's chief political rival until his assassination in 1961.

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49 Al-'Amal, April 25, 1943.

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51 Action, December, 1963, p. 7. Action was the French-language monthly published by the LKP until its demise in 1968.

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53 Al-Kataeb al-Lubnania: Political Democratic Party (Beirut, 1958), p. 22Google Scholar. Also reproduced in Karpat, Kemal H., ed., Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (New York, 1968), p. 108ff.Google Scholar

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56 Al-'Amal, November 21, 1942. For an interpretative analysis of this nationalist theme in Kata'ib ideology see Entelis, John P., “Belief-System and Ideology Formation in the Lebanese Kata'ib Party,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 4 (04, 1973), 148–162CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Anderson, Charles W., Mehden, Fred R. von der, and Young, Crawford, Issues of Political Development (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1974), p. 199.Google Scholar

58 Ibid., pp. 207–208.

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64 Bourguiba, Habib, “La démocratic est une voie difficile,” publication of speech presented in Monastir, 10 11, 1971, p. 9Google Scholar.

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81 See Minhaj pp. 33–34, passim.

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