Politics
Introduction
(and navigation page)

Politics in general

"Politics must be understood through reason, yet it is not in reason that it finds its model. ... Politics is an art and not a science."

~ Hans Morgenthau

There are two main obstacles to objectively analyzing political decisions, behavior, and outcomes:

1) The values-laden subjective social milieu in which the observer finds himself or herself,

2) the essential self-reinforcing characteristic of most political phenomena, which gives rise to nonlinear, often-unpredictable outcomes.

Power

I would define politics as follows:

The pursuit of power in the public realm, the exercise of such power for particular or general purposes, and attempt to legitimize such power.

Interest

The Common Good Broad principles vs. particular interests: Agendas behind noble plans

Justice

Basic principle of politics

The things that one must do in order to get power (deal-making, disparaging opponents, etc.) often clash with considerations of the common good, which are supposed to influence public policy decisions.

Reality vs. utopia:

"Here, then, is the complexity, the fascination, and the tragedy of all political life. Politics are made up of two elements -- utopia and reality -- belonging to two different planes which can never meet."

~ E. H. Carr,
The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939 (1946)

E. H. Carr: "Here, then, is the complexity, the fascination, and the tragedy of all political life. Politics are made up of two elements -- utopia and reality -- belonging to two different planes which can never meet."

Paradox of collective action:

Security - power dilemma:

Diplomatic negotiations and two-stage game theory:

Liberal - Conservative Conundrum:

Following in the tradition of Charles Tilly, Bruce Porter provides considerable empirical and theoretical backing for the argument that war mobilization and the modern interventionist welfare state have been mutually reinforcing phenomena. As he writes,

Liberal and reform-minded political leaders abhor war, but recognize the opportunity it presents for social reform; conservatives revere military institutions and traditions, but are often wary of actual conflict, sensing its potential for revolutionary change. (Bruce Porter, War and the Rise of the State, 1994)

This book deals with "state building," the long process by which fractured regional powers become unified into nation-states as a collateral effect of waging war. In my terms (see Dissertation), the hypothesized affinities between foreign policy and economic policy -- orthodox-compliant (OC) on one hand and defiant-heterodox (HD) on the other hand -- may be regarded as a manifestation of the historical tendency of societies to forge a unified identity and pursue greater social justice when threats from other countries increase: "we're all in this together." This conclusion is likely to be appalling to old-fashioned Marxists who believe that war is essentially a capitalist plot, such as Hannah Arendt. The hypothesized OC affinity is be consistent with the libertarian position expressed by Rummel, suggesting that the roots of peace lie in liberal capitalism -- not necessarily liberal democracy. (from my Dissertation Chapter One: final section)

Did you know?

Africa is a continent, not a country!

Well, of course you did. (But you'd be surprised by some of the students these days...)

International politics

Foreign leaders (year-by-year list since 1975)

U.N. Security Council (year-by-year list of member countries since 1990)

Chronology of world politics

Year	President	Wars	Other big issues and events
1960	Eisenhower		U-2, Berlin, Congo
1961	Kennedy	Bay of Pigs invasion; Laos	Vienna
1962	Kennedy	Laos	Cuban missile crisis
1963	Kennedy	Assassination of S. Vietnam Pres. Diem	Assassination of Pres. Kennedy
1964	Johnson	Vietnam: Gulf of Tonkin; Laos	Beatlemania
1965	Johnson	Vietnam, India-Pak.	U.S. intervenes in Dominican Republic.
1966	Johnson	Vietnam	Riots in U.S. cities
1967	Johnson	Vietnam, Mideast (Six-Day War)	"Summer of Love" in S.F.
1968	Johnson	Vietnam Tet Offensive	MLK, RFK assissinations, urban riots
1969	Nixon	Vietnam, U.S. into Cambodia	U.S. lands on Moon; Woodstock music festival.
1970	Nixon	Vietnam, Cambodia, U.S. into Laos	Terrorism, airline hijackings in Mideast.
1971	Nixon	Vietnam, Cambodia	Dollar crisis, China
1972	Nixon	Vietnam: NVA offensive, Cambodia.	China, USSR
1973	Nixon	Cambodia; Yom Kippur War	"Peace" in Vietnam; Watergate, inflation
1974	Nixon / Ford	Cambodia	Watergate, stagflation
1975	Ford	Commies win in Cambodia & Vietnam; Angola
1976	Ford	Angola civil war	Bicentennial of U.S. independence
1977	Carter		U.S. human rights campaign
1978	Carter		Turmoil in Iran; Nicaragua Revolution
1979	Carter	China-Vietnam; USSR intrvenes in Afghanistan	Iran Revolution
1980	Carter	Iraq invades Iran.	Iran, Cuba
1981	Reagan	Iran counterattacks Iraq; Israel bombs Iraq.	El Salvador civil war
1982	Reagan	Falklands; Lebanon; Iran-Iraq
1983	Reagan	Iran-Iraq	Euro-missiles, SDI;
1984	Reagan	Iran-Iraq	Euro-missiles, Nic.;
1985	Reagan	Iran-Iraq	Euro. terrorism. Nic.;
1986	Reagan	Iran-Iraq	Gorbachev-mania, Libya
1987	Reagan	Iran-Iraq	Helsinki summit; Iran-Contra; Wall St. mini-crash
1988	Reagan	Iran-Iraq war ends.	S & L crisis, Japan trade dispute
1989	Bush I	U.S. occupies Panama.	Tienanmen Square massacre, Berlin Wall is taken down.
1990	Bush I	Iraq occupies Kuwait.	Budget battles, Cold War ends, Germany reunifies.
1991	Bush I	Iraq/Kuwait (Desert Storm)	Commie coup fails, USSR dissolves
1992	Bush I		Budget, Russia
1993	Clinton	Croatia vs. Serbia	Health care debates; NAFTA is passed.
1994	Clinton	Bosnian civil war, uprising in Mexico	GOP wins election.
1995	Clinton	NATO intervenes in Bosnia.	GOP "Revolution," Clinton-Gingrich showdown.
1996	Clinton		N. Korea threatens war, Taiwan
1997	Clinton		Asian financial crisis
1998	Clinton	Kosovo	Clinton impeachment
1999	Clinton	Al Qaeda strikes U.S.S. Cole.	Sudan
2000	Clinton		Somalia
2001	Bush II	9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda; U.S. forces enter Afghanistan.	Congress passes huge tax cut bill.
2002	Bush II	Afghanistan is stabilized.	U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security is formed.
2003	Bush II	U.S., U.K., et al. liberate Iraq.	WMD intelligence cast in doubt.
2004	Bush II	Upsurge of violence in Iraq.	Swift Boat ads against John Kerry.
2005	Bush II	Iraq is destabilized.	Abu Ghraib torture scandal; Hurricane Katrina
2006	Bush II	Iraq is further destabilized.	Iran, N. Korea; Dems. win election.
2007	Bush II	Bush begins "Surge" in Iraq.	Darfur genocide
2008	Bush II	Iraq is stabilized; violence in Afghanistan.	Mortgage crisis, Wall St. bailouts
2009	Obama	Afghanistan; Sri Lanka rebels are defeated.	"Great Recession," stimulus, Haiti & Chile earthquakes
2010	Obama	Obama begins "surge" in Afghanistan.	Euro crisis; "Obamacare" health reform; tsunami in Japan
2011	Obama	U.S. forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.	Euro crisis, "Arab Spring," deadlock over U.S. debt
2012	Obama	Afghanistan; civil war in Syria.	Obama wins reelection vs. Romney; "fiscal cliff" looms.
2013	Obama	Afghanistan; civil war in Syria.	Ed. Snowden flees U.S.; budget impasse, govt. shutdown in Oct.
2014	Obama	Russia seizes Crimea, etc. from Ukraine; ISIS "caliphate."	Police kill Michael Brown in Missouri; Black Lives Matter.
2015	Obama	U.S. forces enter Syria to fight ISIS.	U.S., 11 others sign Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
2016	Obama	U.S. air attacks help Iraq retake Fallujah from ISIS.	Trump wins election, but many suspect Russian hacking.
2017	Trump	U.S. attacks Syria: chem weapons? ISIS strongholds fall.	Trump closes Mexican border, withdraws from TPP & Paris Accords.
2018	Trump	U.S. withdraws some forces from Syria & Afghanistan.	U.S. withdraws from Iran nuclear deal, raises tariffs on China.
2019	Trump	Turkey threatens Kurdish militias in Syria.	Mueller Report; Trump meets Kim Jong Un, is impeached over Ukraine.
2020	Trump	U.S. drone kills Iranian general, missile counterattack.	covid-19 pandemic: lockdowns; Trump disputes election.
2021	Biden	U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan; Taliban victory.	Jan. 6 assault on Capitol, Trump is impeached; George Floyd is killed; riots.
2022	Biden	Russian invasion of Ukraine; NATO sends military aid.	Extreme heat in Europe & western U.S.; FBI seizes Trump documents.

SOURCES: World Almanac and Book of Facts (2022), Washington Post, etc.

National politics

"Energy in the executive is the leading character in the definition of good government."

~ Alexander Hamilton,
The Federalist #70.

The Executive Branch

The Presidency -- includes election results and a list of national conventions since 1948.

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Congress

Congress -- includes a chronology of seats held by each party in the House and Senate, and the leaders thereof, since 1981.

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The Judiciary

Supreme Court (year-by-year chronology of justices since 1975)

Current Supreme Court:

• Chief Justice: John Roberts (2005)
• Clarence Thomas (1991)
• Stephen Breyer (1995)
• Samuel Alito (2006)
• Sonia Sotomayor (2009)
• Elena Kagan (2010)
• Neil Gorsuch (2017)
• Brett Kavanaugh (2018)
• Amy Coney Barrett (2020)

Federal Court system

The United States Court of Appeals consists of ten "circuits" (districts). "The Ninth Federal Circuit has a well-deserved reputation as a bastion of left-liberalism, but its problems don't end there. It has 28 active judgeships and its jurisdiction encompasses western states, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. population, which creates all sorts of distortions." (Sept. 2005.)

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Political parties

Past national party chairmen:

Term	Democrat	Republican
1993	David Wilhelm / Debra DeLee	Haley Barbour
1995	Sen. Chris Dodd *	Haley Barbour
1997	Roy Romer *	Jim Nicholson
1999	Ed Rendell *	Jim Nicholson
2001	Terry McAuliffe	Jim Gilmore / Mark Racicot
2003	Terry McAuliffe	Ed Gillespie
2005	Howard Dean	Ken Mehlman
2007	Howard Dean	Mike Duncan
2009	Tim Kaine	Michael Steele
2011	D.B.* / Debbie Wasserman-Schultz	Reince Priebus
2013	Debbie Wasserman-Schultz	Reince Priebus
2015	D. Wasserman-Schultz / *Donna Brazile	Reince Priebus
2017	Donna Brazile / Tom Perez	Ronna (Romney) McDaniel
2019	Tom Perez	Ronna (Romney) McDaniel
2021	Jaime Harrison	Ronna (Romney) McDaniel

Asterisk (*) denotes general chairman, responsible for public speaking and fundraising, serving along with a party chairman focused on managerial duties. SOURCE: Wikipedia, etc.

State & local politics

"All politics is local."

~ attributed to Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House

Politics in Virginia

Also see: National Conference of State Legislatures

Books about politics

Aristotle, Politics introduction by Max Lerner (New York: Random House / The Modern Library, 1943 [orig. circa 340 B.C.]

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, introduction by Clinton Rossiter (New York: Mentor Books, 1961 [orig. 1788])

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, introduction by Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985)

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, introduction by John Plamenatz (Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1963)

Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man and Power Politics (Chicago: Phoenix Books, 1967 [1946])

Locke, John. 1980. Second Treatise of Government. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

Bruce Porter, War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics (New York: The Free Press, 1994).

Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man(New York: Avon Books, 1993)

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: Phoenix Books, 1962)

Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society (New York: Scribners, 1932)

Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1990 (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990)

Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979)

John H. Herz, Political Realism and Political Idealism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951)

R. Douglas Arnold, The Logic of Congressional Action (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990)