Why should you care about power, politics, and government?
Politics is serious business. Decisions made by governments can have a profound impact on people s health, wealth, and happiness. Yet politics is also a form of competition. Politicians and citizens who engage in political activity are all players in the game of politics. Following are the goals and strategies of five political games.
Horse trading is a classic American business. In the old days, traders brought their horses to a local market where interested buyers would examine them to determine their value. Horse traders were shrewd bargainers. Hearing the low bid, the trader might walk away in disgust only to suddenly turn on his heel and make a counteroffer-one much higher than the horse was worth. The buyer and seller would go back and forth until they reached a price they both agreed on.
Today, horse trading is another name for the kind of hard bargaining that goes on in politics. The key players are often politicians who want something that they cannot get without help from their political opponents. Often this something is a proposed law.
The objective of the horse-trading game is to achieve a “win-win situation, ” in which both players walk away satisfied. The basic strategy involves giving up something one s opponent wants in exchange for something of equal-or greater-value.
The famous Missouri Compromise was the result of horse trading in Congress. After much debate, the Northern states, which had abolished slavery, agreed to allow Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state. In exchange, the Southern states accepted a ban on slavery in much of Louisiana Territory and admission of Maine as a free state. This win-win compromise helped postpone the Civil War for several decades.
The horse-trading game is familiar to many children and parents. A teenager, for example, might negotiate to stay out an hour beyond normal curfew on a Saturday night in exchange for a pledge to help clean out the garage the next day. In this game, each side has given up something to get something else it wants.
The walkout game is similar to horse trading in some ways. But instead of giving something to the opposition, players take something away-usually themselves. They walk out of the game and refuse to return until the opposition agrees to give them something they want.
The classic example of this strategy occurs in a pickup basketball or football game when the owner of the ball gets upset, perhaps about a disputed rule or a foul. The offended player picks up the ball and threatens to go home. This puts pressure on the other players to give in. They know that without the ball, the game cannot continue.
On a larger scale, the walkout game is commonly played by labor unions to back up demands for better pay and working conditions. If employers refuse those demands, union workers may choose to strike, or walk off their jobs. Without workers, businesses find it difficult to function. This puts pressure on the employer to come to terms with the union.
Cesar Chavez successfully used walkout tactics in his struggle to improve the lives of California farm workers. In 1962, Chavez, along with Dolores Huerta, founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers. Their goal was to convince growers to treat their workers fairly, with dignity and respect.
When growers refused to bargain with the new union, Chavez organized a strike of California grape pickers. In addition to the strike, he encouraged all Americans to boycott table grapes as a show of support. The strike and boycott lasted five years and brought national attention to the struggle of farm workers for decent pay and working conditions. It also led to the first major labor victory for farmworkers in the United States.
Politics often involves power struggles between people with very different goals. When engaged in such a struggle, clever politicians try to win by outfoxing or overpowering their opponents.
The strategies needed to win the power struggle game were first described by a 16th-century political philosopher named Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, and rose to a high position in the city s government. In that role, he faced the question of how wealthy Florence could best defend itself against enemy attacks.
After leaving government, Machiavelli studied this question more deeply. He examined the behavior of leaders, good and bad. From this, he developed ideas about how best to win the power struggle game.
In his most famous book, The Prince, Machiavelli described strategies that a prince, or ruler, could use to acquire power, create a strong state, and keep it safe from attack. In it he urged rulers to take a hard look at the world as it is, not as it ought to be. Italy at that time was plagued by political corruption, mercenary armies, and backstabbing politicians. Given this reality, a prince could not afford to look to Christian morality as his guide to action. As Machiavelli put it,
To play the power struggle game, Machiavelli wrote, a ruler needed to be as smart as a fox and as strong as a lion. He explained in The Prince that
As a player in this game, a prince had to be prepared to do whatever was necessary for the survival of his state. In the actions of men, and especially of Princes, Machiavelli wrote, the end justifies the means. He wrote that a prince must not hesitate to destroy those who can and will injure him and instill fear in others, even if this costs him the love of the people. If we must choose between them, he advised, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
So great was Machiavelli s influence on the study of politics that The Prince is still widely read today. Moreover, we often describe politicians who use cunning tricks and amoral tactics in the power struggle game as Machiavellian.
President John F. Kennedy played the power struggle game with the Soviet Union during the Cuban missile crisis. The president viewed Soviet construction of missile bases in Cuba as a threat to the security of the United States. To end that threat, he employed both force and cunning.
On October 22, 1962, Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine, or blockade, of Cuba. The U.S. Navy prepared to forcibly board Soviet ships heading to Cuba and search them for missiles. The president also made plans to invade the island, if necessary, to remove the missiles.
Meanwhile, the president began negotiating with the Soviet Union. After several tense days, the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles on two conditions. First, the United States would promise not to invade Cuba. Second, it would remove its missiles from Turkey, a U.S. ally bordering the Soviet Union. Kennedy agreed publicly to the first condition and secretly to the second, thereby ending the crisis. By keeping the second condition secret, however, the president left the impression that he had forced the Soviets to back down simply by threatening war.
While the goal of the power struggle game is survival in a sea of enemies, the aim of demolition derby is the complete destruction of one’s opponents. The game takes its name from car-crashing contests in which drivers use their vehicles as weapons to demolish the other cars. The winner is the last car running at the end of the contest. In the political version of this game, players try to eliminate all real and perceived enemies.
The key players in demolition derby are those who command the means of force. They include military leaders, dictators, and monarchs. Players use a variety of strategies, ranging from fear and intimidation to murder and massacres, to wipe out the opposition.
The demolition derby game often ends in a bloodbath. This was the case in the century-long struggle for control of the Mediterranean region between ancient Rome and the North African city-state of Carthage. By the end of the first two Punic Wars, Rome had stripped Carthage of much of its military power. Yet Roman politicians continued to argue that Carthage must be destroyed.
In the Third Punic War, Rome did just that. Its army totally demolished Carthage, burning the city to the ground. The 50,000 Carthaginians who survived this destruction were sold into slavery. According to legend, the Romans then plowed salt into the ground surrounding Carthage so that nothing would ever grow there again.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from demolition derby players are those who forsake violence for the moral high road. The key players in the political game of civil disobedience are people of conscience, moral crusaders whose goal is to end some social or political evil. Their strategy involves publicly shaming the opposition. They accomplish this by deliberately disobeying what they consider an unjust law.
The word civil in this game s name means having to do with citizens. As the name suggests, the players in this game are usually ordinary citizens protesting an injustice. In this game, the protest typically involves an in-your-face but peaceful confrontation with authorities. By remaining nonviolent, the protesters hope to contrast their high moral vision with the unjust laws and actions of the government.
One of the most revered players of this game was Mohandas Gandhi, one leader of the struggle to free India from British colonial rule after World War I. Gandhi organized massive civil disobedience campaigns to protest the injustices of colonialism. His followers refused to work for the government, pulled their children out of government schools, and blocked city streets so that nothing could move.
Gandhi was arrested many times and spent seven years in prison altogether. Each time he used his imprisonment to remind the world that taking action against an unjust government was the highest duty of a citizen. In 1947, he finally won his great struggle when Britain granted India its independence.
The political game of civil disobedience is difficult to play. As Gandhi s story shows, it takes courage, patience, and strength of character. But played well, it can produce amazing results.