1. Questions : What is political history?
Is political history confined to a narrow group, (ie the activities of political leaders) or a wider group?
What are the advantages of studying political history to the social/cultural/economic historian?
Can you define the word ‘ideology’? Do you think a political ideology can influence a person’s behaviour?

2. ‘Ideology is the most elusive concept in the whole of the social sciences.’
David McLellan, 1995

3. ‘An ideology is a system of values and beliefs regarding the various institutions and processes of society that is accepted as fact or truth by a group of people. An ideology provides the believer with a picture of the world both as it is and as it should be, and, in doing so, organises the tremendous complexity of the world into something fairly simple and understandable.’
Lyman Tower Sargent, Contemporary Political Ideologies: A Comparative Analysis (2006), p.3

4. Andrew Heywood (Political Ideologies, 2007) includes the following in his list of meanings for ideology:
A political belief system
The ideas of the ruling class
Political ideas that embody/articulate class or social interest/s
Ideas that propagate false consciousness amongst the oppressed
Ideas that situate the individual in a social context and generate collective well-being
Officially sanctioned set of ideas that legitimise a political system or regime
All embracing political doctrine that claims a monopoly of truth