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Despite growing attention to realism in political theory, there remains a notable gap in understanding how politicians adopt, interpret, or contest the realist approach. This gap is particularly striking given that realist theory fundamentally hinges upon grounding theoretization in the realities of politics. This article turns to the political discourse surrounding the war in Ukraine to examine the role of realist argumentation in justifying and guiding political action. In contrast to the rejection or critique of ideologies in contemporary realist theory, our analysis, adopting a morphological approach of the discourses articulated by Emmanuel Macron, Viktor Orbán, and Olaf Scholz, revealed the substantive and ideological nature of realism. Our findings underscore the potential for starting realist theorizing by considering the realities of political practice, namely that realism must be situated between fidelity to reality and the uncertainties of dissimulation.

Aim. Critical analysis and conceptual reception of the cognitive trend in the study of political ideologies. Methodology. In the course of the study, a conceptual-analytical method was used, which made it possible to identify the basic provisions of scientific theory and/or methodology based on the analysis of key scientific texts. The paradigm works of Paul Ricoeur, John Brookshire Thompson and Michael Freeden were analyzed. Results. It is shown that in the understanding of ideologies there has been a significant shift from interpreting this phenomenon as a means of distorting social reality, masking conflicts and contradictions, as well as producing illusions, to a more complex and multi-layered interpretation of ideology as a cognitive matrix of group consciousness as an interpretive code and a symbolic tool for establishing and reproduction of dominance. The concept of ideology within the cognitive approach was conceptualized. Research implications. The systematization of the main conceptual elements of the cognitive approach to the study of political ideologies, carried out in the article, creates the basis for a deeper reception in the domestic social sciences of the methodological tools of this approach and a more adequate understanding of the nature of ideologies.

Two branches of discourse studies, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse theory (DT), could benefit through extending their critical focus and incorporating findings and methodologies of neighbouring disciplines. While indebted to the attentiveness of CDA to ordinary language, ideology studies have by contrast developed interpretative, non-judgmental analytical frameworks that explore the many-faceted features of ideology, power, and the political. In turn, the macro-focus of DT on binary distinctions, articulatory equivalences, and the construction of hegemony through empty signifiers, overlooks the complex internal conceptual morphology that produces multiple ideological vocabularies. Through a layered filtering of texts, utterances, and linguistic intensities, ideological micro-morphology reveals processes of semantic decontestation in order to defend, alter or criticize political thought-practices. It illuminates the complex interrelationship between word and concept and accepts fantasies as ineluctable and decodable features of communal life. By reaching out beyond their disciplinary confines, the interplay of these parallel approaches could enrich the scholarly understanding of the political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the historiography of the Chinese Communists, socialism in modern China was not dominated by Marxism. There were heated intellectual debates over socialism in relation to the problems of modern China. In these debates many Chinese liberals disagreed with Marxists and proposed alternative interpretations of socialism. This article focuses on Carsun Chang's distinctive theory of "democratic socialism," which was neither Marxian socialism nor pure social democracy. I argue that Chang's democratic socialism combined some core concepts of liberalism, German idealism, and some socialist elements, which bore a strong resemblance to the "liberal socialism" proposed by the British thinker Leonard T. Hobhouse. Therefore the mainstream view that Chang was an exemplar of social democracy is too narrow to describe the complexity of his thought. Chang's discourse on socialism represents a distinctive, though often ignored, liberal tradition in Republican China, which might be best described as a form of New Liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores whether and how the neo-liberal ideology has adapted to the Nordic welfare model by studying the attitudes of voters and grass-roots members of the Danish party Liberal Alliance towards the welfare state. This inquiry into one of the key issues for the neo-liberal ideology is inspired by theory on how an ideology will adapt to its context. The expectation outlined in the article is for the neo-liberals of this party to favour features that make the Nordic welfare model distinctive – extensive governmental responsibility, especially for children and the elderly, and a universalistic approach to providing welfare. I have explored this question using a mixed-methods approach, where I analyse a survey of voters and interviews with grass-roots members of the party. Combined this shows that the neo-liberals in Liberal Alliance do support a role for the welfare state that extends beyond a minimum welfare state, especially for the care of children, but they view old age and retirement mostly as a problem each individual must deal with. Regarding the universalistic approach to providing welfare, the neo-liberals seem torn between two different tendencies, one being a perception of a fair way to provide welfare and the other the idea of a selective welfare state as a neo-liberal core idea, which leads to ambivalent attitudes. I argue that this results in a form of the neo-liberal ideology that has adapted to the Nordic welfare model.

This article studies the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism applying a model of “ideological morphology” to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Using nationalist press and archival materials, the author analyzes core and peripheral concepts of OUN's ideology. The findings reveal that in 1930s – early 1940s the morphological structure of OUN's ideology was fascist. However, after 1943 some peripheral concepts came to substitute the fascist core, which led to a splinter within the OUN and subsequent democratization of the one on its factions. The study offers theoretical explanations of ideological metamorphosis applying a constructivist approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]