Ideology and the promotion of social change

Abstract

Most models predicting collective action for social change have not considered the role of ideology. Recent research suggests, however, that ideology is a key variable in predicting social change efforts by illustrating that conservatives are more likely to resist whereas liberals are more likely to promote social change. In this review, I bring two lines of research together showing that not ony liberals but also right-wing populists are interested in collective action for social change. I introduce an integrative framework that endeavors to clarify the relation between ideology and social change by taking the content of socio-political issues into account. I propose that the distinction between progressive and reactionary social change can help to connect different social change intentions with its underlying ideological antecedents.