The End of Ideology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties is a book by Daniel Bell, first published in 1960. Bell suggests that the older humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new parochial ideologies will soon arise.
[edit] Theory
A variety of theories have emerged, even before Daniel Bell's work. Karl Marx, using work from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, stated that once a state progressed from capitalism, a classless society would emerge, rendering ideology irrelevant. Daniel Bell, in the 1950's, is often seen as the standard-bearer for the theory. James Burnham, a journalist for the National Review, proffered a similar thesis that foresaw the advent of a state of technocrats, all capable of finding the best answers to political and social problems, making ideology extinct.
