In political science, a political ideology is a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order.

A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. Some political parties follow a certain ideology very closely while others may take broad inspiration from a group of related ideologies without specifically embracing any one of them.

An ideology's popularity is partly due to the influence of moral entrepreneurs, who sometimes act in their own interests. Political ideologies have two dimensions: (1) goals: how society should be organized; and (2) methods: the most appropriate way to achieve this goal.

An ideology is a collection of ideas. Typically, each ideology contains certain ideas on what it considers to be the best form of government (e.g. autocracy or democracy) and the best economic system (e.g. capitalism, socialism, or communism). The same word is sometimes used to identify both an ideology and one of its main ideas.

For instance, socialism may refer to an economic system, or it may refer to an ideology that supports that economic system. The same term may also refer to multiple ideologies, which is why political scientists try to find consensus definitions for these terms.

For example, while the terms have been conflated at times, communism has come in common parlance and in academics to refer to Soviet-type regimes and Marxist–Leninist ideologies, whereas socialism has come to refer to a wider range of differing ideologies which are most often distinct from Marxism–Leninism.Roberts, Andrew (2004). The State of Socialism: A Note on Terminology. Cambridge University Press. 63 (2). 349–366.

Political ideology is a term fraught with problems, having been called "the most elusive concept in the whole of social science".D. McLellan, Ideology, University of Minnesota Press, 1986, p. 1.

While ideologies tend to identify themselves by their position on the political spectrum (such as the left, the centre or the right), they can be distinguished from political strategies (e.g. populism as it is commonly defined) and from single issues around which a party may be built (e.g. civil libertarianism and support or opposition to European integration), although either of these may or may not be central to a particular ideology. Several studies show that political ideology is heritable within families.Bouchard, T. J.; McGue, M. (2003). "Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological differences". Journal of Neurobiology. 54 (1). 44–45.Eaves, L. J.; Eysenck, H. J. (1974). "Genetics and the development of social attitudes". Nature. 249, 288–289.Hatemi, P. K.; Medland, S. E.; Morley, K. I.; Heath, A. C.; Martin, N. G. (2007). "The genetics of voting: An Australian twin study". Behavior Genetics. 37 (3). 435–448.Hatemi, P. K.; Hibbing, J.; Alford, J.; Martin, N.; Eaves, L. (2009). "Is there a 'party' in your genes?". Political Research Quarterly. 62 (3). 584–600.Settle, J. E.; Dawes, C. T.; Fowler, J. H. (2009). "The heritability of partisan attachment". Political Research Quarterly. 62 (3). 601–613.

The following list is strictly alphabetical and attempts to divide the ideologies found in practical political life into several groups, with each group containing ideologies that are related to each other. The headers refer to the names of the best-known ideologies in each group.

The names of the headers do not necessarily imply some hierarchical order or that one ideology evolved out of the other. Instead, they are merely noting that the ideologies in question are practically, historically, and ideologically related to each other.

As such, one ideology can belong to several groups and there is sometimes considerable overlap between related ideologies. The meaning of a political label can also differ between countries and political parties often subscribe to a combination of ideologies.

Anarchism

Political internationals Anarkismo (platformism and specifism) Informal Anarchist Federation (insurrectionary anarchism) International of Anarchist Federations (synthesis anarchism) International Confederation of Labor (anarcho-syndicalism and revolutionary syndicalism) International Workers' Association (anarcho-syndicalism)

Classical

Individualist anarchism Egoist anarchism Illegalism Philosophical anarchism Libertarianism Left-libertarianism Libertarian socialism Mutualism Social anarchism Anarcho-communism Magonism Neozapatismo Anarcho-syndicalism Collectivist anarchism

Post-classical

Anarcho-capitalism Anarcha-feminism Anarchism without adjectives Anarchist synthesis Anarcho-pacifism Cantonalism Green anarchism Anarcho-primitivism Social ecology Communalism Municipalism Democratic Confederalism Jineology Veganarchism Insurrectionary anarchism Platformism

Contemporary

Anarcho-transhumanism Black anarchism Communization Market anarchism Post-anarchism Post-colonial anarchism Post-left anarchism Queer anarchism

Religious variants

Buddhist anarchism Christian anarchism Islamic anarchism Jewish anarchism

Regional variants

Authoritarianism

General

Absolute monarchism Autocracy Caesarism Caudillismo Despotism Soft despotism Dictatorship Benevolent dictatorship Constitutional dictatorship Civilian dictatorship Dictablanda Left-wing dictatorship Military dictatorship Stratocracy Right-wing dictatorship Imperialism Civilizing mission Colonialism Exploitation colonialism Internal colonialism Neocolonialism Settler colonialism Lebensraum Manifest destiny Slavocracy Kraterocracy Mafia state Managerial state Ochlocracy Oligarchy Aristocracy Minoritarianism Technocracy Algocracy Cyberocracy Plutocracy Bankocracy Corporatocracy Timocracy Police state Counterintelligence state Soft authoritarianism Totalitarianism Ideocracy Totalitarian democracy Transnational repression Unitarism

Other

Authoritarian capitalism Corporate capitalism State capitalism Authoritarian socialism Leninism Stalinism Trotskyism Castroism Titoism Marxism–Leninism National Bolshevism Anti-revisionist Marxism Hoxhaism Maoism Blanquism Authoritarian conservatism Fitzhughism Monarchism Authoritarian democracy Authoritarian populism Byzantinism Digital authoritarianism Ecoauthoritarianism Liberal autocracy Minoritarianism Neo-feudalism Far-right ultranationalism authoritarianism Fascism Falangism Nazism Neo-fascism Neo-Nazism Nazi-Maoism Neo-Legionarism Third Positionism

Opposition Anti-authoritarianism Anti-monarchism Monarchomachs Decolonization

Religious variants Theocracy

Regional variants African

Central African Republic Congo Egypt Equatorial Guinea Libya South Africa Sudan Uganda Zimbabwe

American

Argentina Bolivia Brazil Bolsonarism Chile Pinochetism Cuba Dominican Republic Guatemala Haiti Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru United States Trumpism Venezuela

Asian

Afghanistan Cambodia China Chiangism Indonesia Iraq Iran Japan Kazakhstan Myanmar North Korea Pakistan Ziaism Philippines Saudi Arabia South Korea Ilminism Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan

European

Belarus France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Portugal Romania Russia Putinism Serbia Spain

Communitarianism

General

Christian democracy Communitarian corporatism Democratic confederalism Distributism Georgism Mutualism Person Dignity Theory Radical centrism Third Way

Other

Christian socialism Eurasianism Freiwirtschaft Pre-Marxist communism Primitive communism Religious communism Christian communism Islamic communism Jewish communism Utopian socialism

Regional variants Kibbutz Obshchina Singapore Zadruga

Communism

Political internationals

Committee for a Workers' International (Trotskyism) Coordinating Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International (Trotskyism) Fourth International (Trotskyism) Fourth International (post-reunification) (Trotskyism) Fourth International Posadist (Trotskyism) International Bolshevik Tendency (Trotskyism) International Committee of the Fourth International (Trotskyism) International Communist Current (left communism) International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) (Trotskyism) International Communist Party (left communism) International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (International Newsletter) (Maoism) International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) (Hoxhaism) International League of Peoples' Struggle (Marxism–Leninism–Maoism) International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties (Marxism–Leninism) International Socialist Alternative (Trotskyism) International Socialist Tendency (unorthodox Trotskyism) International Workers League – Fourth International (Trotskyism) Internationalist Communist Union (Trotskyism) League for the Fifth International (Trotskyism) League for the Fourth International (Trotskyism) Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International (Trotskyism) World Socialist Movement (anti-Leninism, classical Marxism, impossibilism and international socialism) Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International (Trotskyism)

Authoritarian

Barracks communism Nechayevshchina Blanquism Bordigism Nechayevism Tkachevism

Leninism

Democratic centralism Trotskyism Archeio-Marxism Orthodox Trotskyism Pabloism Posadism Third camp Trotskyism Vanguardism War communism

Marxism–Leninism

Brezhnevism Real socialism Castroism Ceaușism Dubčekism Gorbachevism Glasnost Perestroika Guevarism Focalism Ho Chi Minh Thought Kaysone Phomvihane Thought Hoxhaism Husakism Juche Kimilsungism Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism Songun Kadarism Khrushchevism De-Stalinization Khrushchev Thaw Maoism Maoism–Third Worldism Third Worldism Third World socialism New Synthesis Mao-Spontex Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Gonzalo Thought Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Prachanda Path People's Multiparty Democracy National Democracy Naxalism Pol Potism Socialism with Chinese characteristics Deng Xiaoping Theory Mao Zedong Thought Scientific Outlook on Development Three Principles of the People Three Represents Xi Jinping Thought Marxist–Leninist atheism Scientific communism Stalinism Anti-revisionism Neo-Stalinism Socialism in one country National communism National Bolshevism Socialist patriotism Soviet socialist patriotism Soviet nostalgia Soviet antisemitism Left-wing antisemitism Soviet anti-Zionism Titoism Đilasism Rankovićism Socialist nationalism Socialist Yugoslavism Yugo-nostalgia

Libertarian

Anarcho-communism Egoist communism Communard movement

Marxism

Classical Marxism Orthodox Marxism Impossibilism World Socialist Movement Kautskyism Luxemburgism Spartacism Libertarian Marxism Autonomism Workerism Left communism Vperedism Bordigism Communization Council communism Socialisme ou Barbarie Solidarity Situationism Spontaneism Ultra-leftism Mao-Spontex Marxism–De Leonism Unorthodox Trotskyism Chaulieu–Montal tendency Johnson–Forest tendency Third camp Shachtmanism Left Shachtmanism Open Marxism Western Marxism Austro-Marxism Frankfurt School Freudo-Marxism Hegelian Marxism Marxist humanism Budapest School Praxis School Neo-Marxism Analytical Marxism Conflict theories Dependency theory Social conflict theory World-systems theory Freudo–Marxism Gramscianism Italian road to socialism Neo-Gramscianism Instrumental Marxism Neue Marx-Lektüre Political Marxism Structural Marxism Democratic road to socialism Post-Marxism Radical democracy