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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1answer
24 views
Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love
What did Marx mean by saying "Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love"?
6
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3answers
263 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 ...
3
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5answers
725 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 ...
4
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2answers
115 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
40 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, ...
1
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0answers
56 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
376 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, ...
1
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1answer
158 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 ...
0
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0answers
43 views
Democracy and Republic [duplicate]
I often here about two words in the routine life. But I can't understand accurately about them that ' What is a difference between democratic and republic ' ? Many times people use the word Democracy ...
29
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10answers
11k views
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 ...
4
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1answer
91 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
116 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 ...
1
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3answers
124 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
93 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 ...
41
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12answers
6k 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
734 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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4answers
2k 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
291 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
184 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
164 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, ...
0
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3answers
435 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 ...
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1answer
148 views
What are the primary tenets of the liberal international order and what distinguishes that concept from the new world order?
In an article entitled President Donald Trump and the New International Order by Edwin J. Feulner, the founder and former president of The Heritage Foundation, the author states
First, my ...
7
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1answer
115 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 ...
5
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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
104 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 ...
3
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1answer
129 views
Are public opinion and expert views of ideological distances between political parties generally consistent?
This question is inspired by two papers I encountered, which came to the same conclusion using different sources to quantify the ideological distance between political parties in various countries: ...
5
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2answers
288 views
Are party fractionalization and ideological polarization independent (uncorrelated)?
A bold finding of a 2008 study by Russell J. Dalton is that--across the world--party fractionalization (roughly: how many parties there are in a country's legislative bodies, technically the ...
4
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2answers
259 views
Is the US-based observation that “the larger the proportion of minorities, the more exclusionary the electoral system” generalizable?
Trebbi et al. (2008) have observed that (in the US):
Majorities tend to disenfranchise minorities through strategic manipulation of electoral rules. With the aim of explaining changes in electoral ...
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votes
1answer
163 views
What political theories allow businessmen understand politic easily? [closed]
I am a businessman. A pretty successful one. I want to understand politic.
Currently I think I am just a customer of a state, namely, my state, where I paid protection fee called tax. However, ...
3
votes
2answers
168 views
Is Zelig an Arrovian dictator?
This question is a follow-up to this one, and particular serves to clarify a potential error in one of the presented references.
The Context
When elaborating Arrow’s non-dictatorship criterion, the ...
4
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1answer
166 views
Is voter turnout connected to dissatisfaction?
Is there a study revealing a connection between voter turnout and the level of dissatisfaction with the political situation?
3
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1answer
184 views
Anti Zionism vs Pro-Zionism vs Non-Zionism
I have been trying to read and understand Non-Zionism, but i did not get that much out of Wikipedia.
In wiki it is mentioned:
Non-Zionism is the political stance of Jews who "were [or are] willing
...
4
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2answers
3k views
Did direct democracy ever work (in a lab)?
We have had a couple of questions that discussed both the pros/cons of direct democracy in theory, as well as whether it was ever implemented in actual polity.
But these are not necessarily very ...
14
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5answers
3k views
What does the non-dictatorship principle of the Arrow theorem mean exactly?
According to Wiki:
The property of non-dictatorship is satisfied if there is no single voter i with the individual preference order P, such that P is the societal ("winning") preference order, ...
88
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16answers
27k views
Why allow convicted criminals to vote?
According to a 1998 HRW report,
The United States may have the world’s most restrictive criminal disenfranchisement laws. We know of no other democracy besides the United States in which convicted ...
15
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11answers
7k views
What purpose does economic inequality (inequality in wealth) serve?
What purpose does economic inequality (inequality in wealth) serve?
While one can argue that it's a result of differing productive capability, this is not the case with e.g. inherited wealth. Also, ...
9
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2answers
379 views
By what measures can the political power of an organization be estimated?
I asked this question earlier: Which is more dangerous to US democracy: Far-left or far-right ideologies? and after thinking about the comments received, I realized that I should start with some ...
6
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2answers
309 views
When did “equity” become important in political philosophy?
Today "equity" is a commonly mentioned political value. For example, in Kansas the state supreme court found school funding unconstitutional partially because it was not equitable to school districts. ...
3
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2answers
469 views
Who coined the term “precariat”?
Until recently I was under the impression that it is a recent term based on the works of Guy Standing. All publications (currently) cited in the Wikipedia page on the topic are from 2010 or newer. But ...
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0answers
209 views
Alternatives to Jordan Peterson on identity politics [closed]
I'm interested in reading about identity politics from the opposite point of view as Jordan Peterson, which is to say reading from those who embrace the concept. I am particularly interested in:
(1)...
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1answer
185 views
What is the minimum age before your political views are considered well thought out and educated? [closed]
I see a lot of the time people shut younger people down when arguing politics because they say that they aren't wise and educated enough to have these opinions. What age or education level do you ...
1
vote
1answer
667 views
Would a deontological-consequentialist 3rd axis on the Political Compass be informative? [closed]
A political spectrum is a system of classifying different political positions upon one or more geometric axes that symbolize independent political dimensions. - Political Spectrum - Wikipedia
The ...
2
votes
1answer
94 views
Conferences about political meritocracy?
In his book, The China Model, Daniel Bell refers to conferences about political meritocracy:
In a (selfish?) effort to help further my own thinking, I coorganized two conferences with leading ...
1
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1answer
272 views
What exactly is the difference between theory and metatheory? [closed]
What exactly is the difference between theory and metatheory?
It would help if the answers relate to Political Science in general and International Relations in particular. Plus, I would be glad if ...
4
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1answer
200 views
Is there a generalized theory on why nation states become democracies or autocracies?
Historically, are there common elements that have led democratic countries into their stable democracies, and if so is there political science theory that touches on this process?
and conversely
...
2
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3answers
170 views
Why is donation related taxation significantly smaller than inheritance taxation?
Note: this is related to this question
Inheritance tax seems to vary very much from one state/country to another and where I live is virtually nonexistent (you pay 1% only if inheritance is disputed ...
2
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0answers
102 views
What would be the social and political consequences if a major country decided to prohibit driverless cars? [closed]
In the news, there's been talk of countries banning petrol and diesel cars by 2030-2040, but what if a major country - say for example; Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and South Africa; decided ...
6
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3answers
550 views
What did Fidel Castro mean by “A revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.”?
"A revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters." said by Fidel Castro.
Fidel Castro is a Cuban socialist leader who overthrew a dictator in 1959 and established a Marxist ...
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2answers
192 views
Chaos theory in politics [closed]
I have read and seen articles on this topic, but when I wanted to search for some specific examples recently happened or in history, I cannot find any.
As I know, inside politics, a chain of events ...
