Ideology and Revolution

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

Provides a systematic theory of the connections between the struggle for liberation from domination, ideology, and why changes in morality and institutions occur. This book will be of interest to a broad readership of students and scholars in philosophy, history, political science, economics, sociology, and law.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.