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.
292
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What word might describe a position between progressive and reactionary [duplicate]
My understanding of both terms is that they relate to one's tolerance of the status quo, with "progressive" meaning someone who wants to progress beyond the current status quo ("change&...
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0answers
107 views
Does political science only apply to democracies? [closed]
It seems like political science can only study democracies or other non centralized systems. In a dictatorship there is only 1 source of political power so studying the structure seems irrelevant.
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2answers
504 views
If the countervailing ideology to Progressivism is Conservatism, what is the countervailing ideology to Reactionary movements?
Background
In the United States, Progressivism has been associated with sets of (normally left leaning relative to the political spectrum of the time) political reforms whose number and societal ...
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0answers
39 views
Why do we not have an SE section for conspiracy debunking? Are conspiracy questions applicable here? [migrated]
The reason i ask this question here, is because i can find no other platform where the question is applicable, and i thought perhaps political minded people, might actually be the most likely to also ...
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3answers
200 views
Why in the age of the internet are we not moving towards a republican direct democracy model? [closed]
Direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which people decide on policy initiatives directly. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, ...
0
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1answer
124 views
Is politics the reason behind the US having so many news channels? [closed]
The US strongly adheres to the separation of state and church, however it seems that the US cannot separate news and politics. Has this bias caused or contributed to the influx of alphabet news ...
34
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11answers
5k views
Alternatives to money and power as social incentive mechanisms
Capitalism does a pretty good job of incentivizing people to work on what's economically profitable, e.g., finance, law, tech, and what gives them power over others, e.g., becoming CEOs. Now let's ...
18
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2answers
462 views
Is there a term for the practice of defunding a public asset in order to privatize it?
In a lecture entitled The State-Corporate Complex: A Threat to Freedom and Survival given by Noam Chomsky in 2011, at the University of Toronto, a 'standard technique of privatization' is described:
...
2
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1answer
124 views
What are efficient approaches to counter drug trafficking?
I recently heard that for a City/State it might be better to educate people and help them get away from drugs rather than fighting the drug dealers with more and more police force. Based on the ...
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0answers
44 views
“Materialist” versus “symbolic” politics
Apologies if the question is too vague.
By “materialist” politics, I mean political reasoning and action that is primarily focused on the goal of optimizing measurable outcomes for people, in such ...
5
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1answer
156 views
What is the constitutional logic for a republic to have a sovereign immunity law?
Looking at this list, it seems like most sovereign immunity laws exist in countries with monarchies, which makes sense both historically (an artifact of the principle of rex non potest peccare); and ...
5
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3answers
2k views
Why has the State been considered as a problematic institution?
I have enrolled in a course of Public Administration and there is a paper called State, society, and Public Administration. Unfortunately it is a course which a student needs to study him/herself ...
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2answers
169 views
Can we ever truly know democracy? [closed]
So I've been doing a lot of reading mainly to do with democracy, its meanings and its histories and the problem that I keep running into is the impossibility of truly knowing democracy. If we are to ...
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0answers
188 views
How do different parts of society depend on each other for their progress?
As an example, some part of society can progress only so much before such progress stagnates and it requires other parts of society to progress.
Prior Research
No matter how many different ways I ...
1
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2answers
97 views
What is the relationship between politicians' electability and physical fitness?
I wasn't able to find any studies which looked at the relationship between a candidate's body shape or physical fitness and their predicted election success. The closest source I could find were ...
4
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2answers
203 views
What are the methods by which a democratic system can suppress demagoguery and intellectualize the popular vote?
Socrates criticized democracy for its conduciveness to demagoguery and its embrace of even those votes that do not come from thoughtful and intellectual individuals. These objections are salient given ...
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2answers
108 views
Was “The Mandate of Heaven” a theory of directly democratic revolution?
The Mandate of Heaven philosophy states that if a ruler was overthrown by the people, it was Heaven executing its will - with respect to an ineffective ruler.
The Duke of Zhou created the idea in ...
1
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2answers
261 views
Why fight political polarization? [closed]
Political polarization is one of the key topics in politics and society today, and there seems to be a consensus on the opinion that political polarization is something bad. The ability to “reduce ...
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1answer
149 views
Would it be political suicide to suggest reducing Social Security payments to help fund economic stimulus packages? [closed]
I am wondering if it may be tempting for President Trump, or the Democrat presidential candidates, or members of Congress to suggest temporarily reducing Social Security payments in order to help free ...
1
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2answers
149 views
Term for shifting positions toward the center during an election
I was thinking about various politicians who, at the beginning of their campaigns (usually presidential campaigns), held opinions typically associated with "left" or "liberal" ideology, and who, over ...
1
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1answer
384 views
To what extent is Marxism a liberal ideology?
It's been asserted in another answer here that:
Marxism is, of course, part of the spectrum of Liberal ideologies, though it is often maligned as being something 'other.'
Looking at the SEP page ...
0
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1answer
145 views
Is there an elaboration on Roger Martelli's conclusion that left-populism is doomed to fail?
In reading an article about Chantal Mouffe's work, some of which advocated for left-populism, I found this bit interesting:
According to Mouffe, who is also a philosopher of art, only Jean-Luc ...
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5answers
432 views
In what ways is Marxism not (left-wing) populism?
On a certain level, Cas Mudde's definition of populism (the most accepted in academia today, it seems), namely an
ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into
two homogeneous ...
3
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1answer
177 views
What is the freezing hypothesis, and is it still applicable today?
I came across the term, which seems to refer to a theory initially introduced by Lipset & Rokkan in 1967. It appears to refer to a way of categorising voters into 'frozen' blocs that don't shift ...
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6answers
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What is the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism?
Both ideologies seem to have a dictatorship-like system of governance, no tolerance of dissenting opinions, and an executive which holds absolute power.
What is the difference between these two ...
2
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2answers
210 views
Do any countries practice a system of proportional funding/budgeting that combines everyone's funding choices?
As far as I know, most countries write up budgets like they write laws: organs of government declare what they need for the next year, someone makes a proposal, and other people add to the proposal, ...
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4answers
303 views
What prevents organizations that implements mainstream center-left, social democratic policies from becoming popular?
After seeing the first answer, I realized that the question was poorly formed and edited this from socialist organizations existing to mainstream center left organizations becoming popular
In a free ...
1
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0answers
83 views
According to Selectorate Theory, which dictatorship type is best-equipped to survive? [closed]
I understand that selectorate theory can be used to distinguish between democracy and authoritarian regimes (due to difference in winning coalitions) and between the types of dictatorship (due to ...
0
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1answer
198 views
Which (subjective) measure of corruption is the best predictor for an outsider winning a major election?
There's a (somewhat vague) theory that once the electorate starts to believe the political system is corrupt, it is more likely to vote for an outsider (someone who hasn't had a long political career) ...
2
votes
1answer
261 views
Are there any proposed systems to bring more long-term planning into (democratic) government?
In much of the world, (liberal) democracy (in a broad sense) is seen as the best (or least bad) system of government, and in the 20th and 21st century, living standards have improved markedly in ...
0
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3answers
79 views
Have some concrete/operational definitions been proposed for the term “shadow war”?
Various commentators have said that US and Iran and/or Israel and Iran are engaged in a "shadow war". Have there been works/proposals in political science/theory literature clearly defining this "...
0
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1answer
263 views
Does any country “filter” otherwise eligible political candidates?
In Brazil, almost anyone can enter politics as long as they meet these conditions:
must have Brazilian nationality or be naturalized;
be in full exercise of political rights;
be listed in the ...
90
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15answers
7k views
What is the purpose of democracy?
In many modern political debates democracy is often considered an unalloyed virtue: things are good because they are democratic. Things the people have voted for are good because they represent the "...
4
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2answers
235 views
Are 'state religion' and 'official religion' the same things?
Are 'state religion' and 'official religion' the same things?
For example, Pakistan has state religion while Sri Lanka has official religion.
On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion , it ...
8
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2answers
3k views
Is the US a welfare state?
Is the US considered a welfare state? If so, where would it be classified using the Esping-Andersen's welfare classification?
8
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1answer
149 views
What is the name of a doctrine that aims to solidify state loyalty by allowing minorities to secede?
Is there a name for a doctrine that states that a nation state would be better off by allowing minorities, such as the Arabs in Israel, Kurds in Turkey, or Albanians in Macedonia, to actually secede ...
1
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2answers
156 views
How widely accepted is the semi-parliamentary classification of executive-legislative relations that was espoused in Ganghof, 2018?
In Ganghof, 2018, the author argues that Australia and Japan both have a newly classified system of government that he dubbed the 'semi-parliamentary system'. In it, the legislative branch is split ...
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0answers
82 views
What are some good online good-faith venues for more opinionated political discussion? [closed]
I've had a rather difficult time leveraging this site for Q&A as a significant portion of my interest in politics is targeted more at formation of my own political beliefs outside the actual ...
48
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19answers
14k views
Is Communism intrinsically authoritarian?
As a consequence of the recent developments in China, I’ve heard a lot of commentary which characterises authoritarianism as an inevitable consequence of a Communist state.
How true is this statement?...
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2answers
276 views
What is the name of the (atheistic) political ideology where rulers are considered the highest moral authority?
In a theocracy, God, is considered the top of the hierarchy.
Then in some monarchies the line is blurred a bit because the monarch is considered appointed by God or to even be a living-God as in ...
3
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3answers
193 views
What is the difference between 'suzerainty' and 'federalism'?
What is the difference between 'suzerainty' and 'federalism’? I’ve found the following definitions, but they sound similar in many ways. What is the main difference between these 2 forms of government?...
1
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1answer
139 views
Can influence diagrams be an effective tool to mediate political disagreements?
From Wikipedia:
An influence diagram (also called a relevance diagram, decision
diagram or a decision network) is a compact graphical and mathematical
representation of a decision situation. It ...
1
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0answers
96 views
Differences between “political theory”, “political philosophy”, and “political thought”?
What're the differences between these terms:
political theory;
political philosophy;
political thought?
I ask because these terms seem to mean the same thing in common usage.
4
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0answers
120 views
Are there well-known democracy ranking/evaluation systems that penalize the fusion of powers (between the executive and legislative)?
Basically, I want to ask how accepted is the idea that fusion of powers between the executive and legislative, present in the Westminster-inspired systems, implies a democratic deficit of some kind. (...
6
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3answers
633 views
What is the meaning of “artificial borders”?
In the political analysis of many conflicts, especially regarding Africa or the Middle East, many people explain the conflicts as being caused, in part, by "artificial borders."
There are also ...
5
votes
3answers
242 views
Which political philosophy takes a situational approach as to whether government or private enterprise solves a problem better?
Background
There are several political philosophies that presume that government tends to be the solution to most societal problems as a major aspect of each philosophy.
By contrast, there are also ...
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1answer
206 views
Why Marxists Parties Keeps so Strong in England While Doesn't in USA? [closed]
As we keep reading about the subject, seems clear that marxist Parties remains very strong in England, while don't in USA, remaining as allies of Democratic Party, which rivals Republican Party, for a ...
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1answer
173 views
Were the SPD social fascists?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Germany
Throughout the Weimar era, the KPD viewed the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as its main adversary,[8] and the KPD referred to ...
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2answers
305 views
Are there standardized ways to quantify political division?
Political division seems to be one of the main issues of our time, with countless articles, op-eds, and studies describing how the US and other countries (the UK comes immediately to mind) are ...
3
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3answers
261 views
Conservatism and Executive Power
The Economist cites the philosopher and political theorist Michael Oakeshott to describe conservatism as "To be conservative... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the ...
