p A political ideology is a system of views which theoretically substantiate the policy pursued by some class or social group. Politics is a special type of relations between classes  [441•1 , nations  [441•2  and parties; politics also specifies the content and forms of government and the involvement in it of classes and social groups.  [441•3 

p By affecting the relations between classes and determining the structure of the state and the 442 content of the activities of state bodies and institutions, a political ideology exercises a direct influence on the life of people and on society at large. By reflecting the genuine interests of a class in theoretically substantiated and systematised forms, a political ideology determines the programme of its activity, as well as the goals and forms of the class struggle, and introduces in it elements of organisation and co-ordination.

p Being one of the ideological forms that is most closely related to the economy and that reflects it in the most concentrated torm, political ideology is the intermediate link connecting the economic .basis with the en^rf! irlpr.1ngira1 superstructure. As a result, a political ideology inevitably leaves its imprint on other elements of the superstructure and on the forms of social consciousness. Political ideology permeates them, as it were, thus giving them a general ideological direction.

p Take the history of capitalist society. In the first period of capitalist development, when the bourgeois political ideology was directed against the decaying feudal system and its political institutions, it demanded the abolition of society’s division into estates and the equality of all social groups before the law, as well as the replacement of absolute monarchy by a democratic republic. Since the church protected society’s division into estates and the existing state power, the fight against feudalism inevitably involved a fight against the church and the replacement of the idealistic outlook advocated by the church with an atheistic and materialistic world outlook tracing 443 the origin of political institutions ’to mundane causes, and stripping them of their former sanctity. Furthermore, since radical changes in the historically obsolete feudal society required the active participation of the working masses in the bourgeois revolution, this forced the bourgeoisie, whenever it was interested in the radical transformation of feudal relations-as it was, for example, in France-to advance a theory substantiating the participation of the mass of the people in the country’s political life.

p Thus, the emergence of a new ideology determined changes in the existing outlook, the attitude towards religion, the arrival of new sociological views, and so forth. There was one reason for all this-the bourgeoisie needed new ideas to theoretically substantiate its political programme and its right to remake society politically in order to consolidate its rule.

p Once the bourgeoisie seizes state power, however, and the contradictions between it and the proletariat begin to intensify, its political ideology undergoes a drastic overhaul and becomes reactionary in nature. The bourgeoisie seeks to prove that the capitalist social system is the ultimate goal of historical progress, that it represents the most perfect social system ever created, and that the socialist-oriented class struggle is unlawful and unnatural, distorting the normal functioning of society’s life, etc. The reactionary nature of the political ideology of the bourgeoisie immediately left its stamp on the other forms of social consciousness and, in particular, on 444 philosophy, which provided a convenient breeding ground for idealism, on morals, which began cultivating vile and racist principles and on the arts, which broke away from the realistic trends and became captive to formalistic and abstractionist schools, and so forth.

p The political ideology of the exploiter classes plays a positive role only in the peroid of social development when the class whose interests it expresses is fighting to remake the historically obsolete production relations and heralds the advance of new production relations corresponding to the existing level of development of the productive forces. As soon as production relations, the economic foundation of the rule of the class concerned, come into conflict with the developing productive forces, its political ideology begins to play a negative and reactionary role. By defending historically obsolete social forms, it retards historical progress and becomes a brake on development.

p As distinct from the political ideology of the exploiter classes, that of the proletariat is consistently progressive. History has assigned to the proletariat the mission of ending all exploitation, which absolutely precludes the replacement of one form of exploitation with another, as has happened in the past. To fulfil this mission the proletariat relies on the actual laws governing the functioning and development of society and on the objective trends in historical development, which demand the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and the establishment 445 of socialist ownership. The political ideology of the proletariat is thus consistently scientific. It expresses the needs of society’s further development and strives to reflect the actual situation.

p At the same time, the political ideology of the proletariat is profoundly partisan and class- conscious. It expresses its class interests and resolves issues bearing on the interrelationship of classes and nations, and on the forms and direction of state policy from the same class viewpoint. The partisan nature of the political ideology of the proletariat does not contradict its scientific character, since the class interests of the proletariat fully coincide with the requirements of social development.

Since this ideology is consistently scientific, it plays an exceptionally big part in the life of society. It activates the working people in their fight to remake society along socialist lines, and is a programme for their revolutionary activity, showing how to replace and drastically improve the obsolete social relations and institutions.