Marius S . Ostrowski
University of Nottingham, Centre for Research into Ideas and the Study of Political Ideologies, Honorary Assistant Professor of the Study of Ideas and Ideologies
I am a social and political theorist, historian of ideas, policy researcher, and writer. My work explores how ideologies emerge and gain influence among the general population, reflected in how public opinion is formed and expressed. I focus on two case studies: the development of social democracy as an offshoot of socialist thought, and the rise of competing visions for European unity over the 20th century.
I have published a book, several edited collections, and numerous journal articles and book chapters, with several more forthcoming over the next few years. I am a passionate supporter of widening access and diversity in higher education to include all those discriminated against on grounds of income, gender, race, sexual orientation, or disability.
I hold a Max Weber Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies; between 2013 and 2020, I was an Examination Fellow in Politics at All Souls College, Oxford. I completed my D.Phil. at the University of Oxford in 2017, with a thesis exploring how ideology shapes the way in which public opinion is formed and expressed. I also hold an M.Phil. in Political Theory and a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, both from Oxford.
Supervisors: Prof. Michael Freeden and Prof. Philipp Genschel
Address: European University Institute
Via dei Roccettini 9
San Domenico di Fiesole (FI)
I-50014
I have published a book, several edited collections, and numerous journal articles and book chapters, with several more forthcoming over the next few years. I am a passionate supporter of widening access and diversity in higher education to include all those discriminated against on grounds of income, gender, race, sexual orientation, or disability.
I hold a Max Weber Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies; between 2013 and 2020, I was an Examination Fellow in Politics at All Souls College, Oxford. I completed my D.Phil. at the University of Oxford in 2017, with a thesis exploring how ideology shapes the way in which public opinion is formed and expressed. I also hold an M.Phil. in Political Theory and a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, both from Oxford.
Supervisors: Prof. Michael Freeden and Prof. Philipp Genschel
Address: European University Institute
Via dei Roccettini 9
San Domenico di Fiesole (FI)
I-50014
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Articles by Marius S . Ostrowski
The 1918-19 German Revolution forced an abrupt moment of decision among German socialists in the question of ‘social reform or revolution’. This article traces the arguments of Eduard Bernstein, the founder of ‘reformism’, on the lessons Social Democracy should draw from the events of the Revolution and the transition from Kaiserreich to the Weimar Republic. It argues that Bernstein makes significant advances on his early reformism in his post-Revolution writings, and explores his refinement of the concept of ‘revolution’ as well as his critique of Bolshevism and the USSR as a new ideological rival within the socialist movement.
In the early twentieth century, several strands of socialist thought emerged that sought to accommodate national identity within the ideology of the workers’ movement. One such contribution—hitherto neglected—came from Eduard Bernstein, who bridged the nationalist–internationalist divide in Social Democracy with a cosmopolitan account of ‘noble patriotism’. This article, which follows an earlier piece on Bernstein’s evolving foreign policy views, explores his contrasting understandings of ‘people’, ‘nation’, and ‘state’. It finds Bernstein’s account of patriotism rooted in Fichtean and Lassallean thought, and outlines his vision of an international system freed from imperial great-power politics: the ‘republic of peoples’.
need for a centralized state structure to sustain the norms governing agents’ behaviour in society. Minarchists support state monopolies over the means of coercion to ensure that society abides by these norms, whereas free-market anarchists consider such monopolies damaging and unnecessary, with norms maintained by agents’ natural motivations. This article finds that the libertarian ‘pre-political’ principles which free-market anarchists adopt lack objectivity and plausible independence, creating a fundamental tension between the endorsement of a libertarian morality and anarchist commitments to pluralism of legal and political structures. It suggests that libertarians place a core, shared value on individual agency, but that this value can only be universalized through political processes of discussion and agreement, and sustained only in the presence of institutional sanction and coercion mechanisms. This article argues that libertarian commitments to agency require such mechanisms to be welfarist and minimally state-like, and proposes various ways in which the appropriate structures and policies could be realized, stressing the continuity of this novel form of libertarian welfarism with the aims and underlying values of both sides of the libertarian debate.
Books by Marius S . Ostrowski
Left unanswered, this tide promises to overwhelm the EU and irretrievably damage the legitimacy of its institutions—or see them coopted into the chauvinist projects of a new and emboldened ‘authoritarian international’. In light of this, progressive forces who value the positive role the EU can play in the world face a stark and urgent choice. They can give the EU a new fundamental vision, centred on elevating the situation of the worst-off in all corners of European society. Or they must reconcile themselves to losing it permanently as a force for freedom and equality, justice, solidarity, and pluralism across the European continent and beyond.
A Radical Bargain for Europe makes an impassioned case for the first of these two choices. It argues that social policy is the site where this new vision must be developed, as the live frontier of the latest debates over the course of European integration. And it presents the concept of a basic income as a concrete step towards fulfilling the promise of a ‘social Europe’—folding in one of the greatest questions of modern social policy debates in many national contexts. This book presents an outline of what a European basic income (EUBI) would look like. It argues that, in its fundamental form, an EUBI has its attractions to a wide range of progressive ideologies, from the far left, greens, and social democracy to liberalism and Christian democracy. Each of these ideologies adds its own unique colour to the shape an EUBI could take, in principle and in practice. Yet all of them must work together in a broad ‘agenda coalition’ to take the next step towards European social integration, embrace an EUBI, and realise the EU’s radical potential.
Over its long history, the concept of ideology has acquired a vast and at times incommensurable roster of meanings: positive and negative, analytic and critical, philosophical, psychological and scientific. But how precisely should we understand and study ideology today? What is its connection to key issues in social life and social research, such as capitalism and class, democracy and partisanship, nationality, sex and gender, race and ethnicity?
In this book, Marius S. Ostrowski navigates a path through the complex maze of ideology’s rival interpretations, tracing the shifting fortunes of ideology analysis from its classical origins to its recent renaissance. The result is a concise interdisciplinary overview of how ideologies combine and arrange ideas and how they manifest in our psychology and behaviour. Drawing on a wide array of examples from across the world, the book outlines the historical preconditions that allowed modern ideologies to emerge and illuminates how we experience ideology’s influence in our day-to-day lives.
Ideology will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars across the social sciences and anyone seeking to understand the way ideology shapes how we understand the world around us.
To confront this crisis, the progressive left must reevaluate its approach to ideological and strategic competition. The last major precedent it has for what can happen when the left is fragmented and the right has turned towards extremism stems from one of the darkest periods of world history. The rise of fascism, the schism of the left between social democracy and communism, and the nadir of a disoriented liberalism eventually allowed bloodshed and destruction to take place on a scale never seen before. In this light, the contemporary left must work to overcome its divisions and bring about ideological unity across its various manifestations—socialist and liberal, green and anarchist, republican, regionalist, anti-racist, feminist, or pro-LGBTQ*.
The left needs clear visions and proposals for how to combine its forces and face the tasks ahead with strength and determination. This book makes the case for today’s progressives to adopt a policy of ‘left unity’ across parties and all other parts of the left movement, and outlines strategies for how the contemporary left can start to build a ‘progressive alliance’. These strategies are inspired by the spirit of past efforts to achieve progressive unity, but they are motivated by the needs and possibilities of the crisis the left faces today. It is for progressives of all colours to learn from them what they can before it is too late.