Does it have to be either/or?
For comparative purposes, what does the thesis, described in The Guardian (UK), say about structural (institutional) comparisons and behaviorial (utilitarian) comparisons?Is there a comparativist out there who would like to offer a review of this book and its implications for comparative politics?
What does it say about leadership and policy making in Gordon Brown's UK? Do the Tories just need a leader who projects the proper emotional cues (like Margaret Thatcher did)?
Have Fox and Calderón almost gotten it right in Mexico?
Does it make any sense to ask these questions about Russia, Iran, China, and Nigeria?
Voting with their hearts
"What matters most in politics - facts and logic, or stories and feelings? Drew Westen says it's emotion that counts - and shows how Bill Clinton and George W Bush understood this, while John Kerry and Al Gore never got it. Here we print extracts from his new book, The Political Brain - which is essential summer reading from Washington to Westminster.
"The vision of the mind that has captured the imagination of philosophers, cognitive scientists, economists and political scientists since the 18th century - a dispassionate mind that makes decisions by weighing the evidence and reasoning to the most valid conclusions - bears no relation to how the mind and brain actually work."A study of my own, and a growing body of research in psychology and political science, show that the political brain is an emotional brain. It is not a dispassionate calculating machine, objectively searching for the right facts, figures, and policies to make a reasoned decision. The reality is that our brains are vast networks of neurons (nerve cells) that work together to generate our experience of the world. Of particular importance are networks of associations, bundles of thoughts, feelings, images and ideas that have become connected over time...
"The data from political science are crystal clear: people vote for the candidate who elicits the right feelings, not the candidate who presents the best arguments...
"The paradox of American politics is that when it comes to winning hearts and minds, the party that views itself as the one with the heart (for the middle class, the poor, and the disenfranchised) continues to appeal exclusively to the mind. True to the liberal philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries, contemporary "liberals" believe that the way to voters' hearts is through their brains. But they are appealing to the wrong part of the brain.
"· Extracted from The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen, published by Public Affairs, price £15.99. © Drew Westen 2007."
[It's available in the USA too.]
See also:
- "The Political Brain, A recent brain-imaging study shows that our political predilections are a product of unconscious confirmation bias" from Scientific American
- "The Political Brain" from Science and Politics
- A review of The Political Brain from Public Affairs
Labels: concepts, democratization, leadership, policy, politics, public opinion
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:46 AM
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