‘Sand in a Picnic’: Kenneth Minogue on Ideology

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Griffiths, Simon. 2025. ‘Sand in a Picnic’: Kenneth Minogue on Ideology. Society, ISSN 0147-2011 [Article] (In Press)

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Official URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-0...

Abstract or Description

In this article, I examine Kenneth Minogue’s critique of ideology. Minogue (1930–2013) was an important thinker in the New Right and has some claim to be a ‘founder of Thatcherism’. He argued that ‘ideology’ involves four assumptions: a category of victimhood; a view of society as a system; an account of true and false reality; and the belief in secular salvation or social perfection. Marxism was the paradigmatic case. This account differs from more common, neutral understandings of the term. Minogue contrasted his account of ‘ideology’ with ‘politics’, which he argued should involve debate between individuals of ‘goodwill’ with legitimate differences of value and opinion. I argue that this account of politics still involves scope for significant doctrinal and policy disagreement. The collapse of Marxism after 1989 led Minogue to broaden his application of ideology to cover forms of liberalism in which he perceived the pursuit of social perfection. I conclude that while Minogue’s attack on the dangers of salvationist ideology was influential, after the collapse of communism he expanded the application of the term to cover many areas of legitimate political debate.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-025-01077-w

Additional Information:

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12115-025-01077-w

Keywords:

Kenneth Minogue, Ideology, New Right, LSE Right, Conservatism

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Politics

Dates: