The Dilemma of Political Choice

Political Choice & Political Life

What is a «political choice»? Any choice for society as a whole that has a bearing on social goods is a political choice.

What affects «political choice»? Getting to grips with this fundamental issue is not simple. It needs to be modelled as a framework.

Political choices are the focus of governments. Those authorized to deal with choices are subject to the influence of powerful groups within society, while being aware that others with minimal power are watching and concerned. This section depicts what is involved by generating a Tree framework.

Political life is about impacting on social choices. It comprises the way individuals act and contribute in society according to their own values and interests, political and otherwise. This social participation framework is derived from the hierarchy of political choice, and will be explained in the next section.

The sequential Spiral trajectory of political modes can be viewed as an instantaneous hierarchy of Levels of political factors i.e. conditions or states within a society.

To understand how the Levels influence each other, we need to create Centres, which are «political forces» within the Levels that have some influence over what happens. This is dependent on recognizing the operative «dynamic duality» that provokes political tension.

Each condition (Centre) can influence some of the other conditions (Centres). The various channels of influence are the «dynamics of political choice» played out more or less transparently in every choice that occurs in society.

Tension in Power-Wealth Distribution

All activities relating to obtaining and distributing power and wealth in society are powered in two different and polar opposite ways:

At the one pole, there is the SOCIAL dimension 
i.e. Centres may emergeClosed in levels from the way that an entire community or society feels, thinks and is disposed to act in regard to particular issues.

At the other pole, there is the PRIVATE dimension
i.e. Centres may emergeClosed in levels from the way particular individuals feel, think and choose in regard to a specific issue. An «individual» might be: a person, a firm, a campaigning group, a particular community.

The poles can be referred to in various ways, including:

  • Individual v Public
  • Personal v Impersonal
  • Chosen v Given
  • Exclusive v Inclusive
  • Particular v General

At some Levels, this dynamic duality leads to the existence of two distinct psychosocial conditions (Centres), one for each pole, while at other Levels, the duality is fused or synthesized leading to a balanced Centre.

Where there are two Centres in a single Level, one condition will tend to dominate the other and be generally somewhat more influential.  By convention, diagrams place the more dominant condition on the right.

ClosedChoosing the Name

Originally posted: July 2009; Last updated: 2 June 2014