Political climate
The political climate is the aggregate mood and opinions of a political society at a particular time. It is generally used to describe when the state of mood and opinion is changing or unstable. The phrase has origins from both ancient Greece and medieval-era France.
While the concept of a political climate has been used historically to describe both politics and public reactions to political actions in various forms, the naming of the concept by the addition of the modifier "political" to the base "climate" has been fairly recent. Public opinion is also widely used incorrectly as a synonym for political climate.
As for judging what the climate is at any given time, there is no way to know an entire country's views on certain subjects. So, polls are used to estimate what the political climate "feels" like on a regular basis.
Etymology
Climate
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the base climate comes from the Middle French climat, which was first used to describe a region's prevailing weather conditions around 1314.[1] One of the first recorded uses of climate as a description of prevailing political attitudes was in The Vanity of Dogmatizing by Joseph Glanvill in 1661 where he mentions "divers Climates of Opinions".[2]
Political
The modifier (politic with the –al suffix) comes originally from the ancient Greek noun polis which referred to both a Greek city state, and the ideal state or government.[3] Over time, this evolved through the Latin noun politicus which is defined as the civil government,[3] to the Middle French adjective politique which is the state of government, or relating to government.[4]
Usage
Historical example
From 431 B.C.E to 404 B.C.E., ancient Greece was torn apart by the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.[5] The war concluded with an Athenian defeat and several years of oppression by pro-Spartan rulers. By 399 B.C.E, Athens had returned to self-rule through revolution. At this time, Athens was undergoing social turmoil due to the apparent failure of democracy as an effective form of government, which created a public backlash against anything anti-democratic.
Socrates—the self-described "gadfly" of Athens because of his practice of elenchos (critical interrogation)—was seen by many as anti-democratic and thus a traitor to Athens due to his associations with Critias and Alcibiades (the former a Spartan supported tyrant, the latter a deserter to Sparta) and his frequent praises of the Spartan and Creten governments because of their similarity to many of his philosophical opinions on government.[6] The prevailing political climate of distrusting anything remotely anti-Athens or anti-democracy coupled with attacks from Socrates's personal enemies led to the philosopher's execution by poison in 399 B.C.E.[7]
Public opinion
The phrase originates from the French term opinion publique, which was first attributed to
Depending on the nature of the thoughts (if they are considered controversial or extreme), the emotional reaction can range from nothing to a highly violent state. Accordingly, controversial issues in the public eye are usually accompanied by or can even produce a polarizing political climate. For example, the introduction, passing, and court fight over
Opinion polls
An
Opinion polls are also known to be entirely incorrect when predicting the outcome of certain events. The best-known example of this is the
See also
- Climate
- Socrates
- Peloponnesian War
- Critias
- Alcibiades
- Montaigne
- Proposition 8
- Bias
References
- ^ "climate". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Glanville, Joseph. The Vanity of Dogmatizing. London: H. Eversden, 1661. 227. eBook.
- ^ a b "politic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "polis". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. Gutenburg: Project Gutenburg, 2009. eBook.
- ^ Bagby, Laurie. Political Thought: A Guide to The Classics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Group, 2002. 3. Print.
- ^ Reeve, C.D.C. The Trials of Socrates. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002. Print.
- ^ Donsbach, Wolfgang. The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. Print.
- ^ Dolan, Maura (6 December 2010). "Prop. 8: Protesters on both sides of gay-marriage issue make their views known outside courthouse". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021.
- ^ Bialik, Carl. "Grading the Pollsters". Wall Street Journal, 16 November 2006.
- ^ Crabtree, Steve. "Gallup Brain: Strom Thurmond and the 1948 Election". Gallup, Inc. (December 17, 2002).
- ^ Millward, David (9 November 2016). "How the pollsters got the US election wrong - just like Brexit". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ "Yoga Can Help Navigate Almost Any Political Climate". ULU Yoga. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ Mercer, Andrew; Deane, Claudia; McGeeney, Kyley (9 November 2016). "Why 2016 election polls missed their mark". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
Further reading
- Bagby, Laurie. Political Thought: A Guide to the Classics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Group, 2002. Print.
- Bishop, George. The Illusion of Public Opinion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005. Print.
- Lewis, Justin. Constructing Public Opinion. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2001. Print.
- Moore, David. The Superpollsters. 2nd. New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995. Print.
- Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg, 2009. eBook.
- "Plato". Classics of Moral and Political Theory. Ed. Michael L. Morgan. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2005. Print.