Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VI – Western Visayas
Division of Iloilo

BUGA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Buga, Leon, Iloilo

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Topic: POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

ACTIVITY 1: Conception Formulation. Read at least four (4) political ideologies and briefly
answer the questions that follow.

Political Ideology How should society work? How should government function?

1.

2.
3.

4.
 Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
Region VI – Western Visayas
Division of Iloilo

BUGA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Buga, Leon, Iloilo

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Topic: POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

Each one of us has our own perspectives in life. This a result of our upbringing and
context. Basically, we differ our perspectives because we have a unique experiences and
different understanding of these experiences.
This would result into the formation of our own beliefs and convictions that will guide us
in our everyday life. On other words, this is how we form our ideology?
An ideology is a comprehensive belief system that allows us to describe, understand
and interpret the world. Similarly, an ideology is our world-view. This is how we see the world.
It is important to have clear ideology in trying to analyse what is happening in our world because
this is our guiding principle.
In light of the political aspect of life, we have our political ideology. A political ideology
is our point of view regarding a political life. Probably, the most important group to have a
political ideology would be a political party.
A political party is a social movement that has interest in gaining political power. It
aggregates the individual political interest of individual members. Without clear ideology,
butterfly politics will occur most of the time.
Political turncoatism or butterfly politics is a political phenomenon that describes a part
member jumping from one party to another. Just like a butterfly that will go to one flower to
another because the previous flower has no more nectar.

Why ideology is important?

The importance of political ideology cannot be undermined. As per the definition we

gave earlier, it is easy to discern why this is important in trying to understand the world.
In this light, we are going to discuss the importance of ideology by using different levels
of analysis: individual, group and state. This will allow us to appreciate the utility of ideology
more.
A. Individual Level
Ideology is important for an individual person for the following reason:
1. It serves as a guiding principle for the individual;
2. It allows people to understand the world better in accordance to the tenets of ideology;
3. It can provide a clear understanding of how one should act in a certain situation.
 B. Group Level
Ideology is can be considered to be more important in the context of groups especially in
the case of political parties. The following are the reason why ideology is important for
groups:
1. It serves as the guiding principle of a specific group.
2. An ideology can become the uniting factor of a specific group. Although the members
have different individuals interests, ideology can find ways to aggregate these interests.
3. 3. For political parties, ideology serves as the foundation of the party. Without such,
political parties will be considered weak an will not be able to maintain its membership.
In this light, when a member of a specific political party wins, the policy actions that is
person will implement or make shall be based on party’s ideology.
4. 4. For civil society groups, ideology serves as their basis for social action. It can
provide a clear-cut way of addressing society’s problem.

C. State Level
States are composed of a variety of different ideologies. In fact, the state can serve
as the arena wherein different ideologies compete. However, it is still important for the
state to have an ideology especially when it comes to the structure. The following are the
reasons why ideology is important in the state level:
1. An ideology can serve as guide for its political structures and actions. For example, a
democratic state can be guide by the ideology of liberalism.
2. The ideology of the state can also serve as guide for the behavior of states in relation to
other states.
After all these discussions, we cannot deny the importance of ideology in our lives. Being
the guiding principle of individuals, groups and states and ideology must be utilized to make
society better. No matter what ideology you follow, the important thing is that it will be used for
the betterment of everyone.