Questions tagged [political-theory]
Political theory is the study of the concepts in politics. Use this tag for questions regarding political philosophy or scientific theories.
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What is the difference between globalisation and imperialism?
It seems obvious to start by looking at the first few lines on Wikipedia:
Wikipedia on globalisation
Globalization or globalisation is the process of interaction and integration among people, ...
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2answers
79 views
Comparative Environmental Policy/ Executive Orders
For a paper, I am currently trying to compare Executive Orders by Trump within the first year of his presidency and Bush's first year of his first presidency concerning environmental issues.
My ...
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0answers
70 views
Should the US intervene in the Democratic Republic of Congo? [closed]
I need to write a global politics paper on Congo for my college class. This is my first time taking a politics class so I am confused on what to do. the question is:
Which IR theory/approach ...
16
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2answers
2k views
Who coined the term “madman theory”?
Madman theory revolves around the idea of appearing more "crazy" than one actually is.
It is actually a signaling game in its simplest form. At least nowadays such games are exemplified with a "...
10
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6answers
727 views
What's the difference between repeating elections every few years and repeating a referendum after a few years?
There's a lot of talk in the UK these days about how holding a second referendum on Brexit would be "undemocratic" and "go against the spirit of referendums". However repeating a vote doesn't seem all ...
9
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3answers
7k views
What exactly is ineptocracy?
I heard about some people arguing about ineptocracy as applying to the country I live in. I searched up the term and found these definitions:
The phenomenon of governance or leadership by the ...
3
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0answers
87 views
Do freedom-of-information laws increase corruption?
That's the general conclusion of a 2007 study:
It has been argued that greater transparency is needed to reduce corruption. One way of
increasing transparency is through the adoption of Freedom ...
1
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1answer
87 views
Scales or real-world ideals of deliberative democracy?
I only had a superficial contact with the literature on deliberative democracy... but it seems to me it's extremely theory-laden.
What I'd like to know if there have been empirical proposals to gauge ...
2
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3answers
288 views
Where would Geoism be placed on a political compass?
Geoism/Georgism is an economic philosophy holding that, while people should own the value they produce themselves, economic value derived from land and other natural resources should belong equally to ...
4
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2answers
121 views
Implication of governmental taxes
Are governmental taxes (federal or state) which an entity pays considered a debt [owed to its government] or is the entity merely giving the government its share? E.g. a person is taxed 30% on his ...
2
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2answers
203 views
Are there political proposals to jail/fine parents of a minor guilty of murder?
I was reading an article about a relatively recent story where a minor was convicted of murdering another minor.
This triggered a train of thought that ended in the question in the title.
To explain ...
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1answer
113 views
What is the neutral way to establish a Democracy? [closed]
It seems to me that there is no neutral way to establish a Democracy.
When there are unavoidable threats to a Dictatorship or a Monarchy , the Dictator or King (whom I will call DK in short) may call ...
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0answers
67 views
If masses caused social revolution in Europe, who was benefitting from colonisation? [closed]
I was reading events before WWI and between WW I and WW II, and the events were rife with secret treaties between European powers, for sharing colonies between themselves, enrich themselves by ...
2
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2answers
102 views
Ancient Concept of Government and Modern Government
As far as I understand, the ancient concept of government, as stated, for example, by Cicero, revolves around the enforcement of the law, enacting a just law, and obedience to the law. For example, a ...
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4answers
419 views
What are the great modern achievements of political science? [closed]
When I think of great achievements of modern sciences, I can point to things like nuclear energy for physicists, the internet for computer scientists, etc. however for political science I am unsure ...
0
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1answer
111 views
What is the difference between a one party state & non-partisan democracy?
A one-party state often in practice appears to consider that all nationals are de-facto members of the ruling party, so how is there really any difference between that & a non-partisan democracy?
...
11
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2answers
734 views
Would the Founding Fathers have supported an inheritance tax?
I recently had someone make the claim that several of the Framers of the U.S. Constitution would have likely agreed with an estate or inheritance tax. This theory was backed up by a few quotes from ...
3
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4answers
263 views
In what ways economy influence slavery and end of it?
Most people think slavery is prohibited because it's "wrong".
If that's true, we would have ended slavery thousands of years ago.
It seems that industrialization makes labor more "precious". Each ...
3
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3answers
196 views
What’s the point of triumvirate, as political regime?
Triumvirate is a very frequent pattern of government, and almost every area or the world, in almost every age, shows examples of it.
I’m Italian, and thus I am particularly familiar with the notion, ...
4
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4answers
304 views
What is a “government by techology” called?
What is the technical term for a "government by technology" called? By "by technology" I mean that, for example, a computer program's decisions form the basis of governance. Is this "technocracy"?
2
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0answers
49 views
Are there substantial consensus results on the political causes and/or consequences of economic inequality in political science?
In economics, there are any number of books and articles that provide a broad survey of theoretical and empirical findings on economic inequality. Much of this material is technical, and most of it is,...
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6answers
385 views
Can collectivist economics co-exist with Individual rights?
I have often heard that collectivism and individual rights can't co-exist because they are opposites. On the surface this appears to be accurate, but is there any historical examples of societies ...
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1answer
234 views
The ethics on darwinism and social darwinism
Has someone written a monograph on ethics related to social darwinism and darwinism?
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5answers
1k views
Does liberal democracy require a significant amount of free-will in order to function?
In one of his articles/books, Yuval-Noah-Harari argues that liberal democracy might be obsolete if human agency is greatly reduced by technology:
Information technology is continuing to leap ...
5
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1answer
596 views
Is there an international consensus about Privacy vs Security (How Much Data Should We Collect?)
On the one hand, privacy gives people leeway for free thought, freedom of expression, and criticism without fear of personal consequences.
On the other hand, security ensures the structural integrity ...
2
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3answers
219 views
What is the relationship between government expenditure and the quality of life?
Can we say, in general, what is the relationship between relative government expenditure (or the total taxation) and the average quality of life?
3
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1answer
278 views
How does Donald Trump define the word conservative?
Ronald Reagan's rise to prominence was built on the conservative intellectual movement and the thinking of figures like Russel Kirk, Frederick Hayek, Frank Meyer, Irving Kristol,and William F. Buckley ...
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3answers
563 views
What is the relationship between age and political ideology?
This question asked whether the current distribution of ages within each political party is similar to the past. This leads to a more general question: what is the relationship between age and ...
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4answers
2k views
Is the conspiracy theory of “Cultural Marxism” inherently tied to antisemitism?
According to Wikipedia, cultural marxism is a conspiracy theory that says that the Frankfurt School wants to destroy western culture by controlling the media, academia, etc., using as its method the ...
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2answers
188 views
Is Hobbes' Leviathan part of classical realism?
I am wondering whether Hobbes as an author and his Leviathan specifically, are part of classical realism.
The purpose of the Leviathan is to accumulate the monopoly on force and hence, overcome the ...
42
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8answers
13k views
Why do politicians refuse to answer hypothetical questions?
Often you hear politicians say this "I don't answer hypothetical questions". Why can't hypothetical questions be answered? What are the grounds for politicians justify saying that? Is there a way to ...
0
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2answers
52 views
Suggesting a book to understand politics theory and the organization of states [closed]
I am a politics and history hobbyist but my engineering life didn't give me enough time to dive more into politics and think about more advanced concepts and improve my formal political knowledge. So, ...
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0answers
61 views
Is the extended security framework a useful model for modern security phenomena?
First, I am referring to working paper from Christopher Daase (2010).
Daase, Christopher (2010): Der erweiterte Sicherheitsbegriff. Working
Paper 1. Sicherheitskultur im Wandel
His paper ...
0
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7answers
642 views
Who “owns” a country? [closed]
In corporations, the stockholders "own" the corporation. If you have your own business, you pretty much do whatever you like with the business.
However, if you're a manager working for a business, ...
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1answer
650 views
What is the difference between direct and indirect democracy
which is the difference and similarities between this two types of democracy?
Is there any political structural differences or philosophical differences among them ? Which type of political system ...
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10answers
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Can the U.S. technically be called an oligarchy and a democracy?
I thought theoretically the U.S. could be a democracy (because people have a say in the daily workings of the government) and an oligarchy ( the president, the Supreme Court, etc... are the only ones ...
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2answers
208 views
Difference between the Scientific and Behavioral approach to International Relations
As per my shallow research, IR literature and online content intermix Scientific and Behavioral Approach to International Relations. What exactly is the difference between the Scientific and ...
3
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0answers
139 views
Are there some studies which measure the level of politicization of courts in a trans-Atlantic perspective?
It's easy enough to find a Europe-only comparative perspective on the politicization of the judiciary, e.g. Werkmann (2017):
The authors measured the level of politicization in each
country ...
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3answers
132 views
Is first-past-the-post (plurality voting) neither an ordinal nor a cardinal method?
Wikipedia says:
Cardinal methods (based on cardinal utility) and ordinal methods (based on ordinal preferences, also called ranked voting) are two main categories of modern voting systems, along ...
4
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1answer
101 views
How is Approval Voting providing more information than an ordinal method?
Kenneth Arrow says in an interview that Approval Voting provides more information than ordinal methods subject to his theorem:
CES: So it seems like one of the points that you’re stressing within ...
43
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12answers
7k views
Why does partisanship trump concerns about hypocrisy with voters?
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
I'll provide a few examples to demonstrate what I mean:
When their party's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is facing ...
17
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4answers
914 views
Do any theories justify majoritarian election outcomes?
At legislative elections, parties can experience different biases in the translation of votes to seats. Grofman, Koetzle, and Brunell published a taxonomy of these biases (Malapportionment, turnout ...
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5answers
8k views
Is Venezuela an example of socialism?
I've been hearing a lot about Venezuela in the news lately. And it seems there is a big debate over whether it was socialism or not, or whether it was implemented properly.
Is it safe to assume that ...
3
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3answers
308 views
In Marxism are prices decided centrally?
Are prices centrally decided in Marxism?
If so are they based on labour value?
5
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1answer
254 views
What kind of government did Tocqueville consider the United States?
In Democracy in America does Tocqueville consider the United States a democracy, or does he have more nuanced views about the United States's form of government?
6
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2answers
190 views
Why didn't Orestes Brownson think that the “American form” of government is a “Mixed Government”?
In The American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny (1865), Orestes Brownson claims (ch. 1 introduction):
Aristotle* knew only four forms of government: Monarchy, Aristocracy, ...
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3answers
754 views
Are there benefits to war? [closed]
There are obvious costs to war: loss of human life, destruction of property, disruption of people's lives, and much more.
However, despite these costs wars continue to happen. I'm wondering what ...
7
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1answer
180 views
What is the term for the polisci problem of having to vote for a single individual holding many beliefs?
What's the term for the problem where voters have to pick a single person to vote for, but they may support different candidates on different issues?
For example, maybe you like the Democrats ...
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2answers
2k views
What is the Rice Index? How does it measure party unity?
I've read that a so-called Rice index is used in political science to measure party unity. There's no Wikipedia page on this notion. How exactly is it defined?
(Yes, I have jstor access and I can ...
3
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1answer
113 views
Model of interactions between government and society (circular dependency)
I have a question concerning how to think about or how it is that people/governments approach improving society at a large scale. I've attached a diagram showing my thinking:
As you can see there is ...
