ABSTRACT
During the last ten years or so, the terms “neuropolitics,” “genopolitics,” and “biopolitics” have begun to appear—or in the case of the latter, re-appear—in the vast literature which links psychology and politics. Neuropolitics and genopolitics are relatively new at the time of writing, and are still not as familiar to many political scientists as they ought to be. One thing I’ve tried to do throughout this book is to explain political psychology in a simple, accessible, and direct way. Writing about these topics in that fashion is admittedly rather hard to do, though, not least because hardly anyone is an expert in all the areas that these three general approaches or fields of study draw upon. In order to get a real handle on these subjects, you first of all need to be trained in political science, of course. But you also need to know about cognitive neuroscience, psychology, biology, physiology, primatology, ethology, and behavioral genetics as well! This is a pretty tall order, and take my hat off to anyone who feels they’re truly “expert” in all of these simultaneously (while retaining a healthy suspicion at the same time about anyone who makes this kind of claim).
