Many of the major international and intrastate crises and conflicts, but also the threat to democratic principles, are driven by belief systems and ideologies. They fuel political polarization, which is particularly evident in the battleground of social media. Nevertheless, we hardly pay attention to ideologies, their narratives, functions and organizations in economic theory today. Ideologies as "non-rational beliefs" seem incompatible with rationality in economic models.

Therefore, the book examines the role of ideologies and belief systems in individual decision-making behavior from an economic and rational perspective. Due to the fact that people have incomplete information, belief systems and ideologies fulfill a number of important functions. While ideologies themselves serve psychological needs, they are used as a cognitive framework for rational decision-making once they have been adopted through a Bayesian learning process. They influence decisions in a wide range of areas, from consumption and work to politics. This is where the role of ideological organizations becomes important, because they determine the ideological direction of the narratives and their dissemination.

Thus, ideologies give a normative direction, for better or for worse. The "quality" of ideological leadership can be evaluated normatively on the basis of principles such as individual sovereignty and human dignity. A democratic discourse requires an information and communication system that enables an evaluation of precisely these ideologies, free from resource and information power.

Autorentext

Thomas Gries is a Professor of International Growth and Macroeconomics at Paderborn University, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. from Kiel University, Germany, and previously (2008) was a visiting scholar at UNU Wider in Helsinki, Finland. He has coordinated several international projects with cooperating partners in various countries. One of the most important characteristics of his research is its interdisciplinarity. His more than 100 publications cover a wide range of subjects. Topics range from growth, macroeconomics and finance, labor market, entrepreneurship, innovation dynamics, and AI, to development and regional economics, climate change, conflict analysis, terrorism, and social psychology.

Carina Burs is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Economics at Paderborn University, Germany. She received her Ph.D. in Economics at Paderborn University, Germany. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on theoretical work regarding the role of information in decision processes, ideologies, and financial bubbles.

Veronika Müller is an innovation manager who identifies innovation trends, helps companies secure funding for research and development (R&D), and facilitates research collaborations among potential partners. Her interdisciplinary research interests include individual decision-making, socio-economic transformation, conflict, psychological well-being, and belief systems. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Paderborn, where she developed an interdisciplinary framework that examines the interrelation between need deprivation, ideologies, and extremism. She also was a Visiting Researcher at the Chair of Political Psychology, at New York University, USA, funded by the Fulbright Commission, and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., USA.