Is economics an 'ideology'?

Question

I hear a lot about the evils of ideologies, and ideologues etc, especially in reference to social science and feminism. So, I'm curious - is economics an ideology? What about politics? And what makes them all different or the same? :-)

Answer 1

No..

Economics isn't an ideology; it's the science of resource allocation.  There are several economic ideologies (e.g. capitalism, socialism), but economics itself is an area of study, not an ideology.

Same thing with politics.   "Political ideologies" doesn't mean that politics is an ideology. There are some "political ideologies" like communism, fascism, etc...etc..

Answer 2

Yes.

I minored in poly sci, (majored in history which belongs to the humanities not the social sciences).  Poly sci is really... formulaic, deterministic - I found it annoying at times, lol!  They try ever so hard to get the "science" into "social science'.  Same thing exactly applies to economics, and of course the two intersect in many ways.

*I believe the poster is asking about the study of political science (and economics) as an academic discipline:

"The Social Science that helps in the study of creation, allocation and use of assets is known as Economics. The term Economics comes from the Greek word oikos meaning estate, family and the word nomos meaning organization or management. Economics is divided into macroeconomics and microeconomics. Microeconomics studies definite representatives while Macroeconomics studies the complete economy. Economic reasoning has been correlated with religion, law, and history so on."

Answer 3

Gun Fanatic basically answered this properly. You are confusing categories of intellectual inquiries (economics, political science, gender studies) with the dominant thought-modes that sometimes infest them (Marxism, feminism, fascism, etc.) You can be an economist with a Marxist ideology--a significant percentage of tenured economics professors are indeed Marxist. Marx was a political and economic critic and philosopher, but certain aspects of his writing have been codified into a recognizable thought dogma, or, ideology.

Writers like Mary Wollstonecraft were political philosophers who addressed, among other things, what was known then as "the woman issue." But in terms of ideology she was a classic western liberal, in the tradition of Locke. There was no feminism then, and I suspect she would have found the more ideologically driven contemporary feminist critics to be completely batshat. She would certainly have found Dworkin's views on sexual relationships to be laughably insulting to humanity.

When Raisin and Rose say that economics is an ideology, I suspect what they are really saying is that the entire academic institution is itself highly ideological--it's part and parcel of the capitalist, hierarchical ideology that has backed humanity up to loading dock of Apocalypse. That is what makes all the radical hacks writing jargon for each other up in the Ivory Towers so hilarious.

Answer 4

Guns fan did give a marvellous concise answer. By extension social science is not an ideology, but the propagation of ideologies within it is rife.

Only one type of economics is taken as the 'correct approach' and this is the one taught in universities. It is mainly liberal capitalist in nature. Not the ones rastagrappler talks about, who don't teach in accountancy schools or law schools. I find that rather ideological.  Economics is not an ideology by definition, but ideological strands run through it and its approaches are not objective.

Answer 5

Economics is more of ideology then a math or science.

but yes pretty much all political groups are ideologies.

Answer 6

Economics is a social science.

People do not consider themselves "economists" unless they're experts of economics.

Feminism is not a science, it is an ideology. Anyone can call themselves a "feminist."

Answer 7

Yes they are all ideologies.  There is liberal ideology, conservative ideology, religious ideologies, supply side economic ideology, demand side economic ideology, and others.  Everything we think or believe is part of an ideology.  Without ideologies, there would be no thought higher than the reptile brain, eat, sleep, reproduce.  Those who say they are not ideologues are seriously delusional, or are reptiles.  BTW, I found a baby lizard in my house.  It was soooo cute!!!

Also, Guns gave you the High School Answer.  Not exactly right.

Answer 8

Guns gives an excellent answer but "economists" rarely agree with each other unless they have similar political views about economics.