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.cb PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN POLITICS


	Classical economics and some kinds of political theory,
e.g. Marxism and utilitarianism including variants like Rawls's,
assume that humans are motivated by a desire to optimize some
utility function.  This is often true, but when it isn't, theories
that presume it make mistakes.  This paper is concerned with
the psychological and motivational phenomena required to explain
current American politics.  It will be contended that a desire
to maximize a utility function (subject to reasonable axioms)
is inadequate to explain the political behavior of Americans,
especially young ones, and some other principles will be proposed.
The conclusions are rather unpleasant.