Category Archives: Politics

Identity Politics

In his 2015 book, Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations, Andrew Heywood wrote: All forms of identity politics nevertheless exhibit two characteristic beliefs. First, group marginalization is understood not merely as a legal, political or social phenomenon, but is, … Continue reading

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Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences

From the 2013 book, Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences: While not turning Janes into Joes, the universal architecture of primates, including humans, also permits measurable biological changes based on environmental situations. For example, remove the alpha … Continue reading

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SA: Conservative and Liberal Brains Might Have Some Real Differences

From Scientific American, Oct. 26, 2020: * …conservatives desire security, predictability and authority more than liberals do, and liberals are more comfortable with novelty, nuance and complexity. * Understanding the influence of partisanship on identity, even down to the level … Continue reading

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Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science

Harvard Political Science professor Dennis F. Thompson writes in 2008: * Citizens and their representatives are expected to justify the laws they would impose on one another by giving reasons for their political claims and responding to others’ reasons in … Continue reading

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Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt: the Politics of Order and Myth

Here are some highlights from this 2013 book: * In the years since World War II, the prevailing paradigm of politics has largely centred on the redistribution of resources. Hobbes and Schmitt, by contrast, help us appreciate two other conceptions … Continue reading

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