ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that political beliefs – the reasoning behind the structures, actions, and laws of a political system – follow from individual and shared psychological theories. Political belief systems are, at their heart, psychological theories. They are implicit theories of motivation, personality, mental health, human development, education, and social interaction – topics that are the very lifeblood of psychology. The great experiment in Soviet political systems of the 20th century was over and the change was profound. Studies of social domination usually show that racism and sexism tend to go together in that attitudes towards racial groups other than one’s own correlate with attitudes towards women, so that if one is negative, the other also tends to be negative. Psychological theories about human motivation, violence, human development, and almost every aspect of behavior and the thoughts and emotions that underlie behavior serve as the basis for political thoughts and actions.