The Social Determinants of Ideology: The Case of Neoliberalism in Southern Europe

The specific research questions that lie at the heart of this article correspond to three related but distinct areas of inquiry: a) the ideology of neoliberalism and the broad empirical question con-cerning its suggested status of present-day ‘hegemonic ’ ideology; b) the explanatory power of ‘class’ with regard to questions of ideology; and c) regional patterns of popularity of neoliberal ideas in Europe, with a focus on the countries of southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece). The findings of the study reveal that: a) there are surprisingly low levels of support for neoliberal ideas across Europe; b) class (when conceptualized and operationalized more subtly) continues to be a very useful explanatory tool of relative ideological orientation; and c) social and institutional dif-ferences between northern and southern Europe are also reflected at the ideological level