Prelude

In this chapter, we are going to look at four important factors in the contemporary world to see what they may have to say about the future of ideologies and, by inference, the future of politics. Those factors are:

• A brief recap of ideology and its operationalization
• The central nature of the state in the international system
• The international system as currently comprised through globalization
• Other factors that might also apply: these factors may be endogenous (from within the system) or exogenous (from outside the system)

The general argument to be made is that ideology is developed and operationalized as a means of rhetorical power—that power is vested in its highest form of authority through the apparatus of the state. States are affected internally through domestic politics but, critically, also through the actions of other states and how they are constituted in the international system. There also exist at a global level some factors independent of states that also have the potential to greatly affect human affairs and therefore states, politics and ideology. By looking at all these elements, we can gather some understanding of how contemporary developments may affect ideological development in the future.