Table Of ContentPOLITICAL PLASTICITY
Political plasticity refers to limitations on how fast, how much, and in
what ways political behavior does (or does not) change. In a number
of important areas of behavior, such as leader–follower relations,
ethnicity, religion, and the rich–poor divide, there has been long-term
continuity of human behavior. These continuities are little impacted by
factors assumed to bring about change such as electronic technologies,
major wars, globalization, and revolutions. In addition to such areas of
low political plasticity, areas of high political p lasticity are considered.
For example, women in education is discussed to illustrate how rapid
societal change can be achieved. This book explains the p sychological
and social mechanisms that limit political plasticity and shape the
possibility of changes in both democratic and dictatorial countries.
Students, teachers, and anyone interested in political behavior and
social psychology will benefit from this volume.
Fathali M. Moghaddam is Professor of Psychology at
Georgetown University, USA, where he served as Director of the
Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science (2016–2021). He was
Editor-in-Chief of the American Psychological Association journal
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (2014–2021). His most
recent book is How Psychologists Failed: We Neglected the Poor and
Minorities, Favored the Rich and Privileged and Got Science Wrong
(Cambridge, 2023). He has won a number of prestigious academic
awards.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
The Progressive Psychology Book Series
This book is part of the Cambridge University Press book series Progressive
Psychology, edited by Fathali M. Moghaddam. As the science of human behav-
ior, psychology is uniquely positioned and equipped to try to help us make more
progress toward peaceful, fair, and constructive human relationships. However,
the enormous resources of psychology have not been adequately or effectively
harnessed for this task. The goal of this book series is to engage psychological sci-
ence in the service of achieving more democratic societies, toward providing equal
opportunities for all. The volumes in the series contribute in new and unique
ways to highlight how psychological science can contribute to making justice a
more central theme in health care, education, the legal system, and business, com-
batting the psychological consequences of poverty, ending discrimination and
prejudice, better understanding the failure of revolutions and limits on political
plasticity, and moving societies to more openness. Of course, these topics have
been discussed before in scattered and ad hoc ways by psychologists, but now they
are addressed as part of a systematic and cohesive series on Progressive Psychology.
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POLITICAL PL ASTICIT Y
The Future of Democracy and Dictatorship
FATHALI M. MOGHADDAM
Georgetown University
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781009277112
DOI: 10.1017/9781009277129
© Fathali M. Moghaddam 2023
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions
of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take
place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
First published 2023
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This book is dedicated to
Richard A. Shweder
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Contents
List of Figures page ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xii
1 Political Plasticity, the Key to Understanding the Future of
Democracy and Dictatorship 1
2 Hardwiring inside and outside People 12
Part I P olitical Plasticity and Behavioral
Continuity
3 Why Do Leaders Still Exist? Leadership and Followership 25
4 Rich and Poor – Still Just as Different 37
5 Ethnicity Is Forever 48
6 Religion, Eternally Present but with a Thousand Faces 61
7 The Built Environment and Behavioral Continuity 72
Part II Change Agents, in Theory
and Practice
8 Revolutions and Political Plasticity 87
9 War as Transformative 101
10 Technology Forces Change 115
11 Globalization and Deglobalization 128
vii
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viii Contents
Part III Looking Ahead
12 The Eternal Dictator and Political Plasticity 143
Afterword. Lessons Learned: The Example of Women in Education 154
Notes 162
References 181
Index 211
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Figures
2.1 The continuum of behaviors, from completely
hardwired to completely softwired, with almost all behaviors
located somewhere between these two extremes page 13
5.1 Varieties of strategies for ethnic cleansing 59
7.1 The continuum of blank slate to strong hardwiring,
with major schools of psychology located on the continuum 73
ix
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