IDEOLOGY AND PROGRESS

The progress theme is very important for the ideologies of the Enlightenment political modernity. Moreover, it had received, with the help of the Enlightenment historicism and rationalism, a mythological dimension. Having in view the historical experience that we have today, it is necessary to give up on progress in thismillenarist meaning. But we are observing – as it also results from the political programs presented in the article – that some of the parties affiliated to the forementioned ideologies are approaching in an inconsistent manner the entire theme of the progress. The recession of this theme is part of a larger cultural context, specific for late modernity, when the ideologies seem to be exhausted. But ideologies survive and this fact certifies their power. They continue to impose different reference criteria on politics, and one of the most significant must remainthe progress. But there is also a more modest way to understand progress. Exactly this kind of approach is presented in this article, an approach which is best understood and commented by the help of Richard Rorty's works. Without having the progress as a desideratum, the negative use of power becomes easier. At the same time, the comparative evaluation of the economic, social or political initiatives,and also the social imperatives as solidarity, social cohesion, or the diminishing of the sufferings become more difficult to realize and pursue.