Theories of Political Behavior

The psychodynamics of decision-making form a basis to understand institutional functioning. Deutch, Rokeach, Nye, George, Adorno all come to mind. From Psychology Fromm, Bettelheim, and others have added significantly to understanding of power, sadism, and victims of the state.

Popularly political orientation is often thought to be genetic. There seem to be no academically respectable theorists who propound this view but it has long been wide spread in Western culture. For example in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Iolanthe (1882) the character Private Willis sings, "I often think it comical, fa, la, la, la. That nature always does contrive, fa, la , la. That every boy and every gal that's born into this world alive, is either a little Liberal or else a little Conservative. Fa, la, la." There is, however, ample evidence that children most often develop a political orientation similar to their parents (but through socialization, not genetics).

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