Economic behaviour as a basic element of ideology

Abstract

Economic behaviour is mainly studied by economy and sociology and, to a lesser extent, by other social sciences. This article makes an attempt to confirm the connection between economic behaviour and ideology using the example of the liberal-democratic ideology which has been adopted (or sometimes imposed due to certain economic factors) in recent decades by many countries. Based on the duality of the world (combination of the material and the ideal), one ideology is replaced by another depending primarily on the economic and political system established in the state in a specific time period. Society cannot exist without a uniting idea — otherwise, it will dissolve and literally destroy itself. This fact leads to alternating cycles of various kinds of ideologisation and de-ideologisation. Due to the primary role of material being, the economic behaviour of members of society is one of the basic elements of ideology, since a person’s behaviour in the economic sphere determines his personal essence and the essence of society as a whole. Any ideology chooses the corresponding norms of economic behaviour of participants in economic relations. To understand the essence of a particular ideology, it is enough to analyse the norms of economic behaviour adopted by it. In this regard, the object of this article is the sphere of ideological social relations, while its subject is the category of economic behaviour (concept, structure, essence, functions) and its connection with ideology. The aim is to confirm the thesis that economic behaviour, in addition to being an economic concept, is also a basic element of any ideology. The article discusses the research results obtained by a number of Western and Russian economists, including R. Heilbroner, A. Smith, F. Hayek, R. Coase, L. N. Mamaeva, T. G. Samborskaya and N. I. Boenko, and psychologists, including B. Minchev, A. N. Neverov and others.