A political argument is an instance of a logical argument applied to politics. Political arguments are used by academics, media pundits, candidates for political office and government officials. Political arguments are also used by citizens in ordinary interactions to comment about and understand political events. More often than not, political arguments tend to be circular, repeating the same facts as premises under perhaps slightly different guises. Much political argument concerns issues of taxation and government spending.
Political argument should be distinguished from propaganda, in that propaganda has little or no structure or the rationale, if it exists, is egregiously fallacious.
A classic example of political arguments are those contained in The Federalist Papers arguing in favor of ratification of the American constitution.
There are several ways of classifying political argument:
- Based on the purpose of the argument.
- Based on the logical structure of the argument.
- Based on the subject matter dealt with in the argument.
Read more about Political Argument: Purpose of Political Argument, Structure of Political Argument
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or argument:
“A political place with no power, only influence, is not to my taste.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“A striking feature of moral and political argument in the modern world is the extent to which it is innovators, radicals, and revolutionaries who revive old doctrines, while their conservative and reactionary opponents are the inventors of new ones.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)