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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

An ideology is an organized set of ideas and ways of understanding the world, usually normative, and often on political, economic, ethical or philosophical subjects. Some ideologies are self-declared (eg. environmentalism or libertarianism), while ideology is also used (often pejoratively) to refer to an unconscious set of ideas, practices and beliefs that are characteristic of a particular group but which are not held openly - for instance, many critics of capitalism think of it more as an unconscious delusion or a box which a person cannot think outside of. Marx, for instance, sees social ideology as being a superstructure that is heavily determined by the economic base of a particular society, rather than as something that is freely chosen.