Ideology and Revolution
How the Struggle against Domination Drives the Evolution of Morality and Institutions

Offers a theory of social change that accords a central role to the struggle against domination through the exercise of hierarchical power.

Allen Buchanan (Author)

9781009542524, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 March 2025

250 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.52 kg

'Ideology and Revolution is a powerfully argued and thought-provoking book. Allen Buchanan argues effectively that 'the perpetual struggle between hierarchs and resisters' opens up epistemic space for moral progress and institutional change. He leads us to think more deeply about the positive role that ideology plays in real-world struggles against injustice.' Robert Keohane, Princeton University

In our society there is a constant struggle between powerful, institutionalized hierarchies and people who try to resist them. Whether this resistance succeeds (either partially or completely) or fails, the struggle causes large-scale social change, including changes in morality and institutions and in how hierarchy and the struggle itself are conceived. In this book, Allen Buchanan analyzes the complex connections between the struggle for liberation from domination, ideology, and changes in morality and institutions, and develops a conflict theory of social change, which is systematically laid out in five clear components with a chapter dedicated to each. He examines the co-evolutionary and co-dependent nature of the struggle between hierarchs and resisters, and the appeals to morality which are routinely made by both sides. His book will be of interest to a broad readership of students and scholars in philosophy, history, political science, economics, sociology, and law.

Introduction
1. The structure and recurring patterns of the perpetual struggle against domination
2. Revolution and the explanatory power of the concept of ideology
3. Ideology and the authoritarian tendency of revolutions
4. The ethics of revolution and intervention in revolution
5. Findings and suggestions for further research
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS]