Sets of beliefs and ideas about politics, society, or economics that guide how people think and act.
From French 'idéologie' (idea + -ology meaning study of). Coined in the late 1700s during the French Revolution when people were thinking systematically about political systems and their core beliefs.
The word 'ideology' was literally invented during the French Revolution because people needed a new concept—that politics wasn't just about tradition but about explicit systems of belief that could be questioned and debated, revolutionizing how humans think about power.
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