Ideology, in the
Althusserian sense, is "the imaginary relation to the real conditions of existence". It can be described as a set of conscious and
unconscious ideas which make up one's beliefs, goals,
expectations, and
motivations. An ideology is a comprehensive
normative vision that are followed by people, governments, or other groups that is considered the correct way by the majority of the population, as argued in several
philosophical tendencies (see political ideologies). It can also be a set of ideas proposed by the
dominant class of society such as the elite to all members of society as suggested in some
Marxist and
critical-theory accounts. While the concept of "ideology" describes a set of ideas broad in its normative reach, an ideology is less encompassing than the ideas expressed in concepts such as
worldview,
imaginary and
ontology. Ideology refers to the system of abstracted meaning applied to public matters, thus making this concept central to
politics. Implicitly, in societies that distinguish between
public and
private life, every political or economic tendency
entails ideology, whether or not it is propounded as an explicit system of thought.