Root of all politics, wealth?

[vexed87]

Question, does the root of all politics boil down to the [re]distribution of wealth? Even the moral principles appear to have links that aligning closely with the beliefs of how resources should be divided up among society.

I ask as I am in the middle of a debate about the EU referendum here in the UK, and at the heart of disagreement are social policies, short term prospects of the economy or how many migrants are allowed in to our country and therefore making the country richer or poorer. No one seems to care about sovereignty (except me!).

[Dragline]

No, although sometimes is seems that way due to our inherent tendencies towards pattern recognition, overweighting recent events and WSIATI ("what you see is all there is"). But if you have a confirmation bias either towards that thesis or against it, you should be able to come up with a lot of data to support your position either way.

Politics, especially where votes are meaningful, is really a complex adaptive system with many inputs (like financial markets and the weather). So different factors will seem to be driving it depending on what portion of time you observe it.

This is why politicians are often blindsided when the "iron-clad" strategy that worked so well in recent past elections turns out to be an utter failure in the next. And why political punditry often makes laughable predictions.

[BRUTE]

brute likens politics to the cutting of the gordian knot. and that's not a compliment. if groups of humans find they cannot solve their problems to everybody's agreement, then somebody will have to be made to agree. this is politics. dictatorship, democracy, theocracy, technocracy - special cases.

[chenda]

I lean towards economic determinism, that is over the very long term it is the foundation on which political and social institutions are built.