Comparative Study On The National Ideology Construction Of The Contemporary Socialist States

The ideology is a pervasive phenomenon worldwide, showing itself in each state and society in the history. The ideology is, if anything, the flagship of specific class, party or nation, representing their viewpoints, political beliefs and orientations. As we can learn from the existing history and the human praxis, the ideology is an inviting tool in unifying the civil society. Even more, the ideology can even function in the domain of economy, and will provide the political legitimacy for the regime. This is the reason why the ideology, given its pivotal role, is rendered important in each and every socialist states. After the Cold War period, the communism movement entered its low tide. And this has pushed the ideological innovation in the socialist countries into the frontline. The innovation requires, among other things, the freedom of thoughts, the seeking of truth from the fact, and the adaptive usage of Marxism theory locally. The comparative study of ideological construction in contemporary socialist states thus proving to be meaningful, as the way to acknowledge the policy practices of ideological constructions in these socialist countries.The main theme of this thesis focuses on the comparative study of ideological constructions in socialist countries, which is conducted through the following four aspects. The first section illustrates the histories and main characters of ideological constructions in socialist states. From the view of historicism, and based on the time point of Cold War, this section identifies two major periods in the history of ideological construction. It points out the characters of ideologies in the different periods of ideology’s origination and development. The second section explores the techniques and measures adopted in constructing ideology systems in socialist countries, which including:the orientations, main points and values for these countries’ideological innovation. The third section turns to discuss the challenges and issues facing the ideological constructions. It presents the two sides of socialist countries’ideological construction work, of both the achievements and also the existing problems. The theoretical reflections relating to ideological constructions will be presented in the last section. It gives policy choices and theoretical alternatives as the suggestions to manage the challenges facing the socialist countries who are experiencing the ideological construction and innovation.The originality of this research is its horizontal-comparative methods in studying the issue of national ideology. The limitation of available research time and the limited access to the historical material contribute to the limitations of this research.