Ideology is the beating heart of political passion. It cuts into our ideas about what it is to be human and our ideas about the good society. This course introduces you to the major schools of thought over the last 150 years, and then explores how they have played out in shaping Australian political debate since federation. We start out by exploring how the fervour to create a new kind of society saw Australia adopt its unique mix of wage arbitration, protectionism and White Australia. We follow this through to the liberation movements of the 1960s with feminism, gay rights and anti-racism movements. We explore the roll out of free market ideas of the 1980s and the growth of  neoconservatism in the Howard years. Finally we ask the big questions about the future of beliefs and values in politics.