Category
Political Theory
Frameworks for understanding power, authority and how societies organise - the ideas that shape what's possible.
14 concepts
Diagonalism
The blurring of left and right into one anti-establishment current - where wellness, spirituality and conspiracy fuse and drift rightward.
Political TheoryElite Radicalisation
When extreme views take hold among the powerful and spread downward - reversing the usual idea that radicalisation starts at the margins.
Political TheoryFascism
A revolutionary, anti-democratic movement built on the myth of a nation reborn from decline, by purging its enemies and rallying behind one leader.
Political TheoryLeft and Right
The two broad families of political belief, born from where people sat in 1789 - and still tracking, underneath, your attitude to equality and hierarchy.
Political TheoryManufactured Consent
When media systems produce public agreement with elite interests - not through censorship, but through structure.
Political TheoryMoral Panic
Intense public fear about a perceived threat, amplified by media, disproportionate to the actual danger.
Political TheoryNeoliberalism
The political project that made free-market competition the default logic of everything, from public services to how we see ourselves.
Political TheoryOverton Window
The range of ideas the public considers acceptable at any given time - and how that range can be deliberately shifted.
Political TheoryParadox of Tolerance
A tolerant society that tolerates intolerance will eventually be destroyed by it.
Political TheoryPopulism
A way of doing politics that pits 'the pure people' against 'a corrupt elite' - and claims to be the one true voice of the people.
Political TheoryRegulatory Capture
When the agencies meant to regulate an industry end up serving its interests instead.
Political TheorySpiral of Silence
The tendency for people to stay silent when they believe their opinion is in the minority, causing that opinion to seem even rarer than it is.
Political TheoryThe Ratchet Effect
When temporary expansions of power become permanent - because the emergency passes but the authority never gets handed back.
Political TheoryThe Social Contract
The idea that legitimate authority rests on an unspoken bargain - we trade some freedom for order and protection, and can withdraw consent if it breaks.