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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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69 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 ...
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120 views

Are Wikipedia reliable as a political source? [closed]

I noticed a couple of odd things recently: 1) The statement made repeatedly that the actual content of something (the primary source) is not considered reliable regarding what it actually contains e....
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18answers
8k views

Is Communism intrinsically authoritarian?

As a consequence of the recent developments in China, I’ve heard a lot of commentary which characterizes authoritarianism as an inevitable consequence of a Communist state. How true is this statement?...
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246 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 ...
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3answers
165 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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2answers
129 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
85 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.
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63 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. (...
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1answer
340 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 ...
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3answers
231 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
198 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
166 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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1answer
146 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 ...
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243 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 ...
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3answers
686 views

Is there any study linking ignorance to political preference?

I was talking with a friend of mine and we got to a realisation that ignorant people (those uneducated) tend to look for the politicians of a specific side of the political spectrum in contrast to the ...
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1answer
113 views

Is the social contract invalid if I change jurisdiction? [closed]

Can I move to a different place and nullify the social contract (just somewhere else)? Does this destroy the moral justification for taxes?
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588 views

The meaning of “right” in Italian Fascism

In laying out the foundation for fascism, Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini wrote two essays in the 1920s and 30s known as, "La Dottrina del Fascismo". Gentile authored the first essay titled "...
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2answers
170 views

Is there a standard political process which a government uses to verify claims?

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/456092-top-aide-names-seven-deadly-sins-china-must-end-to-stop-trade-war “Stop stealing our intellectual property, stop forcing technology transfers,...
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5answers
470 views

Does a best or most optimized system exist?

People have diverse views about what they think is moral, what economic policy is the best, what legislation is good, etc. But all of these views are opinions. By sharing our opinions, (most) people ...
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3answers
321 views

What is the difference between a “nation” and a “country”?

I often see certain territories/ semi-sovereignties alternatively referred to as a "nation" or a "country". For example, Quebec (the province in Canada) likes to be referred to as a "nation". Native ...
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1answer
212 views

Do any countries or states require citizens to pass a knowledge-based test before voting?

In Against Democracy, Georgetown University political philosopher Jason Brennan presents his case for epistocracy. Do any countries or states require citizens to pass a knowledge-based test before ...
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3answers
10k views

Why did the World Bank set the global poverty line at $1.90?

In early 2019 Bill Gates tweeted an infographic during the 45 meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos that showed that the proportion of people living in poverty had decreased from 94% in 1820 to ...
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1answer
121 views

Who are the main interests behind a culture that Henry Giroux calls the dictatorship of Ignorance?

Henry Giroux, in an article in Salon.com writes: The designers of a new breed of fascism increasingly dominate major political formations and other commanding political and economic institutions ...
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289 views

Why is the voter turnout at EU level so low compared to national elections?

The voter turnout in the European elections in Germany in 2019 for instance was only around 62%. Notable this is still much higher than it was in previous EU elections there… Additionally the voter ...
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1answer
188 views

Are there influential theories why the Lib Dems have survived on the UK political landscape?

Generally a first-past the post FPTP electoral system favors a two-party system, aka Duverger's law. In the UK however, the Lib Dems have managed to survive for (approximately) a century the ...
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2answers
162 views

Is the idea of governing for one's constituents at odds with good policy?

In the US legislator, the elected people govern to help their constituents. How does this work with governing for the greater good of everyone. Let’s use climate change as an example and assume it is ...
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3answers
261 views

What are some political philosophies/doctrines for deciding when violence is acceptable?

Recently some UK politicians have been getting milkshakes thrown over them. No injuries resulted, but the question of when violence, including relatively minor acts such as this, can be justified or ...
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1answer
514 views

Is Chinese Communism with market economy based on any Marxist theory?

Does any Marxist theory allow market economy the way the Chinese have it? Did any Marxist author write anything on this happening in a socialist state? Can a plan economy transform after a while, ...
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4answers
300 views

What is the difference between war refugees and deserters?

To give one example, the US government reserves the right to reinstate conscription at any time. If conscription is reinstated, anyone fleeing the US territory to escape the war will become a deserter ...
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1answer
86 views

Do snap/early elections usually benefit those triggering them?

I'm looking for an empirical survey (that hopefully covers more than one country) addressing the issue whether snap/early elections typically benefit those calling them, either the sole party in power ...
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1answer
83 views

How does the possibility of snap elections provide an electoral benefit to voters?

I live in Canada, which used to have, inspired by the British system, federal elections every 5 years, plus the possibility of snap elections. It was actually reformed to every 4 years, fixed. My ...
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4answers
3k views

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
83 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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2answers
3k 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 "...
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6answers
834 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 ...
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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 ...
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0answers
97 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 ...
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1answer
89 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 ...
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3answers
434 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 ...
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2answers
131 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 ...
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2answers
214 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
139 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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2answers
112 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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549 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 ...
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1answer
140 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? ...
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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 ...
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4answers
341 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 ...
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3answers
233 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, ...
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4answers
331 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"?
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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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