Toward an historical organic ideology: Thatcherism, Trumpism, and Stuart Hall’s engagement with organic ideology

In the 1970s and 1980s, Stuart Hall struggled to make sense of Thatcherism, an ideology that was incoherent, brought together seemingly opposed viewpoints, and embraced contradiction. Ultimately, Hall drew from Gramsci's concepts of organic ideology and organic intellectuals to help make sense of this ideology full of contradictions. This paper examines the theoretical roots of the concepts of organic ideology and organic intellectuals using examples from Thatcherism and Trumpism to illustrate the terms. This paper ends with a discussion of the utility of these concepts and the possibilities of an historical organic ideology, an ideology rooted in historical context.