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 does it mean for Singapore to be pragmatic?

As a Singaporean, one of the things I've learned is that our governance is pragmatic. I assume that this means we do not care about particular ideologies, but rather whatever gets "things" ...
Ignis Incendio's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
65 views

Using technology to take democracy to next level [closed]

Though US is a democracy, I'm hesitant to call it completely democratic. No nation is. At this stage of capitalism, lobbying groups and establishment regularly forces the congress to pass bills that ...
Razor's user avatar
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1 answer
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How to identify the keys to power in a government? [closed]

I am interested in predicting the political dynamics of a country. I really like CGP Grey's explanation of the rules for rulers, and I wanted to use that as my framework for prediction. The basic idea ...
Leibniz's Alien's user avatar
23 votes
11 answers
10k views

Why would a state retaliate to a nuclear strike if the consequences could be human extinction?

The entire mutually-assured destruction (MAD) concept is based on game theory and mutual belief. Suppose we have two states (A and B) with massive nuclear arsenals which together suffice to plunge the ...
Stop Gaza Genocide's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
170 views

How does Karl Marx’s political vision, views, or advocacy differ from communism as realized in places like Soviet Russia? [duplicate]

Since learning a bit more about Marxism, the question has been opened in my mind, to what extent a common perception of what a communist society is supposed to be like - for example, the USSR - is ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
760 views

What range of rules are used in major democracies to limit candidate eligibility for high office?

These two recent questions partially cover the "who is eligible to stand for office" question: Is there a precedent in Western countries where a state court has prohibited a candidate from ...
matt_black's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
156 views

Definition of diversity if Old World countries deemed not diverse enough

One of the recent answers I have seen the claim that the Western countries... see benefit in diversity. What caught my eye is that it's really hard to argue that 1960s France (or Germany, or Spain) ...
alamar's user avatar
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39 votes
18 answers
6k views

How do Western countries get people who vote against the authorities?

I was born in the USSR, Russia, so this is the question that always puzzled me: how it happens that in some countries there are people who vote against the authorities, for instance, the president? If ...
Anixx's user avatar
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Are there any good articles on the topic of how political influence differs from individual to individual?

I'm an industry professional writing a journal article about a certain kind of misinformation that is circulating on the internet. My current reasoning is that public opinion shapes policy decisions ...
phil1008's user avatar
  • 101
1 vote
3 answers
1k views

Why are superstates rare? [closed]

I am interested in the efficacy of superstates and the apparent rarity of them. The closest things that are related, are the European Union and the East African Federation (which is still theoretical)....
Leibniz's Alien's user avatar
8 votes
5 answers
4k views

Can the Tyranny of the Majority rule be applied to the UN's General Assembly?

Looking at this question, and previous year's UNGA resolutions, it seems there's a certain bias in UNGA resolutions. They seem disproportional: 2022 UNGA Resolutions on Israel: 15 2022 UNGA ...
For Shani Nicole Louk's user avatar
0 votes
8 answers
1k views

Given the presence of internet, encryption, and digital cash, why hasn't "assasination politics" taken off?

Jim Bell writes in his Assasination Politics: Now, there is one more thing that I would hope we could get straight: As I originally "invented" this system, it occurred to me that there ...
John Smith's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
494 views

What are the politics of Steven Pinker? [closed]

What are the politics of Steven Pinker? I have not heard or read a statement from him in which he describes the political theory to which he adheres.
Starckman's user avatar
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1 answer
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left vs Right politics and liberal vs conservative [closed]

Can we say left means liberal and right means conservative ? In history we see lot of counterexamples.
quanity's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
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Democracy as a means for growth progress [duplicate]

Is there any correlation beten democracy and development/progress. If yes is it by data(interpolating democratic countries vs Human development index etc.) Or using deductive reasoning (conclusion ...
quanity's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
2k views

What actually stops someone from running for public office in the US after agreeing not to do so?

Rachel Maddow asks whether Trump should be offered a plea deal trading the threat of jail time for his agreeing to never hold public office again. Ron Liebman Barney Skolnik, and Russell “Baker, the ...
xiota's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
632 views

What are some progressive critiques of the concept of democracy and human rights?

I have traced a philosophical line of thought in my mind that “human rights” as commonly defined (and also “democracy”) may suffer a kind of disjunction between their “statutory” and “purposive” ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
17 votes
6 answers
3k views

Do more legislative seats make Gerrymandering harder?

In a system of single member districts, elected for an entire legislative body all at once, is it easier to gerrymander the map to favor one party over another in a two party system, with more ...
ohwilleke's user avatar
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9 votes
8 answers
3k views

Why are radicals so intolerant of slight deviations in doctrine?

As a follow-on to this question, I ask the question in the Subject line. It seems more visible in tiny 1950s-1970s Socialist and Marxist factions (satirized in the conflict between the People's Front ...
RonJohn's user avatar
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-3 votes
4 answers
640 views

Political system fairer than democracy? [closed]

Let's say a country has 1,400,000 citizens. Elections are held about, for example, joining the EU. 1,000,000 people decide to do A, while 300,000 people decide to B, and 100,000 decide to do C. In a ...
Volpina's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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What does social/public-choice theory have to say about plural v. unitary executive?

There are many state-level offices in the US that are elected by the people other than the legislature and the Governor, in the executive (Treasurer, Controller, Attorney General, Secretary, oil & ...
TheReal_Skywalker's user avatar
24 votes
4 answers
3k views

What does the term "Equity" mean, in "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion"?

The use of the term Equity has been on the rise for years, especially with the emergence of the new political term of "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion", or DEI, being bandied about in the US....
Machavity's user avatar
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22 votes
9 answers
4k views

How do unpopular policies arise in democracies?

Very recent example: Macron bypassed parliament to enact French retirement bill amid protests against the bill. There are several pedestrian explanations I can think of: The decision makers believe ...
LudwigNagasena's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
3k views

What are the options for a government facing massive protests over seemingly unsustainable economical measures?

Context France is currently facing nationwide strikes due to pension system reformation discussions. According to France24, there seems to be a debate over the opportunity of such a reform: French ...
Alexei's user avatar
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-2 votes
2 answers
253 views

Do oil-rich, wealthy Gulf countries have any local nationalist movements?

Do oil-rich, wealthy Gulf countries have any nationalist movements that are specific to their own countries, such as Qatari or Emirati (UAE) nationalism? How strong are these nationalisms compared to ...
user366312's user avatar
4 votes
10 answers
3k views

Can Justice exist independently of the Law?

The judiciary, contrary to what people believe, doesn't seem to have the job of determining fairness. Its job seems to be to interpret and judge whether a law was broken or not. Even that seems to ...
WhyDenounce's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
215 views

What sectors/industries would a General Strike cover in the 21st Century

The UK experiencing a lot of strikes at the moment (2022/3) and there have been tentative references to a General Strike. My impression is that historically that would have meant "strike by the ...
Brondahl's user avatar
  • 162
24 votes
9 answers
12k views

What does "the Balkanization of the United States" mean?

What is Balkanization? How does a country/political entity/area become Balkanized? What does Balkanization mean specifically for the future of the United States? Edit: "The Balkanization of the ...
Jaol's user avatar
  • 349
2 votes
1 answer
91 views

Who has first or most famously distinguished different stages of social movements?

Who has first or most famously distinguished 4 stages of social movements? It is common to take social movements to have four stages: emergence, coalescence, institutionalization or bureaucratization, ...
Sasan's user avatar
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-1 votes
3 answers
292 views

How does modern day lobbying align with the ideals of Popular Sovereignty?

A core principle of The Declaration of Independence, Popular Sovereignty, is the idea that a government only exists to serve the will of the individuals it represents. I understand this to mean that ...
GECONN's user avatar
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2 votes
6 answers
790 views

Is there any modern political theory or strong evidence that direct democracy would not work?

If one considers a society with a more direct relationship between what people want and the policies of the country, is there any reason to believe it would not work? In the U.S., people vote for ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
466 views

Why was preaching ideology important for USSR/USA?

I am reading the Wikipedia page on the Cold War, where I found these lines The US government supported anti-communist and right-wing governments and uprisings across the world, while the Soviet ...
Gary 2's user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
1k views

How can one distinguish between "Ethnic Russians" and "mostly Russian-speaking Ethnic Ukrainians"?

According to a multi-million-views talk of John Mearsheimer (2015), the "ethno-linguistic map of Ukraine" looked like this. There's no source given in the talk for the map and I've not seen ...
Dolphin 613 Motorboat's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
151 views

The paradox of majority power vs. contracts

For this question, let us assume that the only principle we care about in public decision making is majority power: the majority of citizens should be able to do whatever they want. There seems to be ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
138 views

Governments can organize themselves into a few bodies, or into many (ministries, agencies, etc.) What are the relative advantages and disadvantage?

For example, Japan, Germany and some other countries have governments organized into a small number of bodies Whereas Canada, Indonesia, Pakistan, and other countries have many. And considering the ...
M. Y. Zuo's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
146 views

Is there any theory regarding a colony's natural evolution into independence?

From a layman's perspective, it seems that the fate of most colonies is to evolve into an independent nation. At least those colonies that are, at a particular point in human technological evolution, ...
Mindwin Remember Monica's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
222 views

Political terminology or example for a leader making their crime a norm by highlighting an opponent's small mistakes?

Let's say that politician A is a corrupt person. His opponent is a moral guy with an honest reputation. The reputation of politician A is badly affected when a news story breaks about his corruption. ...
Shahbaz Ahmed's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
140 views

Correlation between political power and completion of a politician's "grand headquarters"?

Introduction: In "Parkinson's Law, and Other Studies in Administration", in the "Plans and Plants, or The Administration Block" chapter, Cyril Northcote Parkinson elaborates that ...
drabsv's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
268 views

How are interactions between Taliban Afghanistan and the world carried out if they are not officially recognized by anyone?

This is a hybrid politics/international law question and it’s posted here for convenience. Everyday interactions would include border crossings, postal services, telecommunications, airspace ...
M. Y. Zuo's user avatar
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-6 votes
2 answers
263 views

Political system to automatically vote system for optimal life for everyone [closed]

 What would a political system where you could cast a percentage to each party and have that percentage count as the amount of influence you would want that party to have in politics according to how ...
Joselin Jocklingson's user avatar
-3 votes
1 answer
157 views

What do politicians do? [closed]

I do not have much familiarity with politics other than being aware of how politicians are portrayed in the public, including a bunch of jokes made about them. So, in reality, what do politicians do (...
Joselin Jocklingson's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
83 views

What is the academic term for political activities on the small social group level?

We have the phrases "office politics", "family politics", etc, describing relations of power, that is, political relations within small social groups. Political relations on this ...
drabsv's user avatar
  • 231
3 votes
1 answer
239 views

What is the generally accepted definition for "micropolitics"?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, micropolitics is about "small-scale interventions that are used for governing the behaviour of large populations of people." According to the ...
drabsv's user avatar
  • 231
4 votes
1 answer
626 views

Why do Anarcho-Primitivists believe a primitive society will persist?

Whenever anyone advocates a transition to a stateless society, an obvious objection is that such a society would be unable to resist a dissident group trying to impose a government on it. Some ...
Charlie Evans's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
240 views

What research has been done into "emotion-driven" politics?

Byung-Chul Han and other authors have pointed out that political discourses are undergoing a transmutation from the style prevailing in the 1980s to the current one, where post-truth, emotion and ...
Davius's user avatar
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-3 votes
3 answers
418 views

What does Jared Diamond's theory say? [closed]

I am asking about Jared Diamond's (smallpox) theory. What does the theory really say? Does it mention whether specific genes were involved or if it is a theory of racial superiority?
D J Sims's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
409 views

According to the "neo-realists", if the world is like a game of Risk, why isn't everyone uniting against the United States hegemony?

If I got the grand theme of "neo-realism" right (I and I might have not), every somewhat big country has just one primary concern: that some other country is going to become the hegemon. (...
Dolphin 613 Motorboat's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
306 views

How do "neo-realists" support their view that the US can simultaneously exit NATO and convince the EU to cut their economic ties with China?

"Neo-realists" (like John Mearsheimer) argue that the US should simultaneously exit NATO (because the US should focus on the Chinese threat in Asia) and convince the EU to cut all economic ...
Dolphin 613 Motorboat's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
472 views

Why didn't the totalitarian parties in the 20th century use the "big tent" strategy?

I see that ‘big tent’ or ‘catch-all’ parties are quite popular in modern politics. However, the autocrats of the past took the opposite view: Before we can unite, and in order that we may unite, we ...
Wolvington's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
502 views

Is there any academic research into the concept of "government does not control the government"?

In his blog post, Dominic Cummings (former advisor to Boris Johnson) writes the following: In Washington as in London, the golden rule of Government is — the government does not control the ...
JonathanReez's user avatar
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