The Political Illusion
E448936
The Political Illusion is a 1965 book by French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul that critiques modern society’s overreliance on political institutions and the myth that politics can solve all social problems.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Political Illusion canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4515029 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Political Illusion Context triple: [Jacques Ellul, notableWork, The Political Illusion]
-
A.
The Great Political Superstition
"The Great Political Superstition" is an essay by Herbert Spencer that critiques blind faith in governmental authority and challenges the belief that the state is inherently a force for good.
-
B.
Labyrinths of Democracy
Labyrinths of Democracy is a political science work by Heinz Eulau that explores the complexities and challenges of democratic processes and institutions.
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C.
The Political Animal
The Political Animal is a non-fiction book by British broadcaster and journalist Jeremy Paxman that explores the nature, motivations, and behavior of politicians in modern democratic life.
-
D.
The Crisis of Democracy
The Crisis of Democracy is a 1975 report commissioned by the Trilateral Commission that analyzes the challenges posed to Western democratic governance by rising public participation and demands in the late 20th century.
-
E.
The Place for Politics
The Place for Politics is a promotional tagline used by the American cable news channel MSNBC to emphasize its focus on political news and analysis.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Political Illusion Target entity description: The Political Illusion is a 1965 book by French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul that critiques modern society’s overreliance on political institutions and the myth that politics can solve all social problems.
-
A.
The Great Political Superstition
"The Great Political Superstition" is an essay by Herbert Spencer that critiques blind faith in governmental authority and challenges the belief that the state is inherently a force for good.
-
B.
Labyrinths of Democracy
Labyrinths of Democracy is a political science work by Heinz Eulau that explores the complexities and challenges of democratic processes and institutions.
-
C.
The Political Animal
The Political Animal is a non-fiction book by British broadcaster and journalist Jeremy Paxman that explores the nature, motivations, and behavior of politicians in modern democratic life.
-
D.
The Crisis of Democracy
The Crisis of Democracy is a 1975 report commissioned by the Trilateral Commission that analyzes the challenges posed to Western democratic governance by rising public participation and demands in the late 20th century.
-
E.
The Place for Politics
The Place for Politics is a promotional tagline used by the American cable news channel MSNBC to emphasize its focus on political news and analysis.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| argues |
mass media shape political perceptions and illusions
ⓘ
modern citizens overestimate the power of political action ⓘ political institutions tend to expand their own power ⓘ political life is increasingly dominated by technical and bureaucratic systems ⓘ political participation can become ritualized and ineffective ⓘ politics has structural limits in solving social problems ⓘ |
| author | Jacques Ellul ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| criticizes |
belief that politics can solve all social problems
ⓘ
expansion of the state ⓘ myth of political salvation ⓘ overreliance on political institutions ⓘ political centralization ⓘ political propaganda ⓘ political technocracy ⓘ |
| genre |
political philosophy
ⓘ
social criticism ⓘ sociology ⓘ |
| hasPhilosophicalPerspective |
Christian personalism
ⓘ
critique of technological society ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
autonomy
ⓘ
bureaucracy ⓘ citizenship ⓘ democracy ⓘ freedom ⓘ limits of politics ⓘ mass media ⓘ mass society ⓘ modern society ⓘ political apathy ⓘ political ideology ⓘ political institutions ⓘ political manipulation ⓘ political myths ⓘ political participation ⓘ political power ⓘ politics ⓘ propaganda ⓘ public opinion ⓘ state power ⓘ technocracy ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | French ⓘ |
| partOf | Jacques Ellul's critique of modernity ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1965 ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
ⓘ
linked to:
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
The Technological Society ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Political Illusion Description of subject: The Political Illusion is a 1965 book by French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul that critiques modern society’s overreliance on political institutions and the myth that politics can solve all social problems.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.