Strategy in Politics

Political managers—public office holders, legislative staff, campaign managers, policy advocates, and partisan communicators—are united by a common language, a set of shared skills, a strategic mindset, and, we can hope, an appreciation of their professional responsibilities to the institutions of democracy. While political managers are divided by vision and purpose, the best among them are simultaneously visionaries and manipulators, and they balance themselves precariously between these values as they develop and implement strategy. Campaigns often more closely resemble war and sports than the world of commercial business, and in the political arena, achieving victory requires calculated strategy. In Strategy in Politics, F. Christopher Arterton seeks to clarify the meaning of strategy through four perspectives: the dynamics of strategic planning, the conduct of warfare, the theories of persuasive political communications, and the logic of interpersonal competition....