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Questions tagged [political-theory]

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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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4
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3answers
213 views

Is it advantageous to lie in political polling answers?

When a person is asked questions by a poll, are there any rational reasons why they might lie with their answers in order to achieve their goals for the election? For example if they say they are ...
6
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2answers
309 views

“You can't call a country a democracy until a government has twice lost an election and given up power.” Whose quote or idea is this?

I've completed a "Moral Foundation of Politics" course on Coursera.org and there's an interesting quote that sounds like this: Schumpeterians will often say, you can't call a country a ...
3
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1answer
250 views

Is there a term for politicians enacting a policy where the negative consequences will be far after their political career is over?

For example, Governor Newsom has recently committed to banning internal combustion engine cars starting from the year 2035 or 15 years from now. Given that this will be long after he's out of office, ...
1
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1answer
160 views

How can wages/income be aligned with social value production?

Many people would argue that nurses provide more value to society than investment bankers*, yet the latter position is paid significantly more than the former. This fact is often lamented. My question ...
49
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5answers
8k views

Apparently many US voters think their candidate supports their politics even if they do not. Does this also apply to voters in other countries?

This surprising New York Times article says many US voters can't tell what political positions their candidate espouse, and in fact appear to simply attach their favored positions onto their candidate....
4
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2answers
270 views

Political philosophy: major developments in the last 20 years?

Has there been any groundbreaking academic/ scholarly research conducted in the field of political theory/philosophy in the past 20 years? Obviously the 20th century had a lot of novel political ...
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0answers
23 views

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&...
3
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2answers
539 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 ...
-2
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3answers
233 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
125 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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12answers
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
473 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: ...
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1answer
128 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
160 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
170 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
190 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
99 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
214 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
126 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 ...
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2answers
263 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
150 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 ...
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2answers
150 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 ...
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1answer
398 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 ...
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1answer
148 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
450 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 ...
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1answer
184 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
7k views

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 ...
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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 ...
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0answers
88 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 ...
1
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1answer
225 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
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1answer
273 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 ...
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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
268 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 ...
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15answers
8k 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
251 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 ...
9
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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
150 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
160 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
83 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 ...
49
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19answers
16k 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
279 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
200 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?...
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1answer
140 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 ...
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0answers
98 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
121 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
716 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
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3answers
243 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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