>>When I think of ideologues, I tend to think in the present and the lunatic fringes on both the extreme left and the extreme right - bad ideology.

Modern Democracies and Republics actually encourage polarization by mostly relying on two dominant parties that alternate in and out of government with other players reduced to bit parts. It's treated like a football game with vocal fans hollering out their slogans. Altering the rules to spread power so that voting for a minor party does make a difference, via various proportional representation rules, leads to a new set of anomalies- such as the leaders of minnow parties who may not have won a single electorate seat nevertheless becoming Kingmakers who can choose and then control the government. Results include establishment of a government-owned bank as the price of taking the reins as well as various minority pet projects for which there never was a mandate, only a ransom to be paid to take the seat of power. Seems to me that if it mostly works, better the Devil you know etc