Political Psychology, Political Emotions and Their Implications for Good Governance and Citizenship

Abstract

Reviews the books, Political Psychology: Neuroscience, Genetics, and Politics by George E. Marcus (2013); Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice by Martha C. Nussbaum (2013); and Would You Kill the Fat Man? the Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us About Right and Wrong by David Edmonds (2014). Political psychology for Marcus is fundamentally an inquiry into human nature, seeking to explain the link between our nature in all its variety and the possibility of government, both corrupt and virtuous. Nussbaum & Edmonds also aim to understand the nature of virtue required for exercise of citizenship and governance in liberal democracy. However, both Nussbaum & Edmonds rely more heavily on accounts of the human that are drawn from disciplines outside political psychology, instead of foregrounding the study of human nature itself. Like Marcus, Nussbaum engages a wide scientific literature, but sadly she does not treat recent work in the neuroscience of mindfulness and moral action. At the same time, both Marcus and Nussbaum disavow any attempt to reduce or marginalize the adaptive roles that emotion can and does play in a just society under liberal democratic rule. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)