Reconceptualising the Dominant Ideology Debate: An Australian Case Study

Abstract

This paper argues for a discourse theoretical re-evaluation of the dominant ideology debate. Drawing on the findings of a 1986 survey on themes and issues from text by right-wing groups and parties, it examines the degree to which New Right agendas are acceptable in Australia and accepted by whom. Such agendas are shown to be widely accessible and acceptable in varying degrees to a majority of the sample. This appears to extend across structural positions such as 'class'. Concerns about the Australian moral, social and economic order and national identity are seen as constituting the discursive terrain upon which hegemony is contested by opposing forces. While there are multiple possibilities for alternative constructions and resistance to specific imperatives, the New Right appears to be dominant. Its cobbling together of issues of lifestyle, national identity, reformist programs and economics consti tutes what might be referred to as a dominant ideology. Put another way, subjects are seen as drawing upon and being shaped by the discursive resources available to them in their interaction in concrete social situations. Thus while as a dom inant discourse the New Right is negotiated and contested by social actors, it may also be seen as a socially educative insti tution which offers a'commonsensical' knowledge position for subjects and structured positions of dominance and subordina tion. The paper concludes with a brief review of possibilities for change.