The magazine Foreign Affairs takes a
look at the political lessons in the HBO series Game of
Thrones, whose fourth season premiered last night. The
magazine notes that while the series, and the books it was based
on, may be interpreted as a story of how “might makes right,” a
closer look reveals the limitations of realpolitik (the idea that
politics is, and should be, power) and the benefits from following
some rule of law even in a society even as nasty and brutish as
that in Game of Thrones. Foreign Affairs
explains:
Social relations in Westeros are sustained as much
through bread-breaking rituals, arranged marriages, and
promise-keeping as through backstabbing and treachery, and the
power of such rules is only highlighted by their occasional breach.
Lords and kings no less than oath-breakers are punished for
violating custom and agreement — either explicitly or through the
inability to convert their hard power into material successes.
Contrary to Cersei’s assertion, kings cannot always “do as they
like”: Ned and the chivalry he represented may appear to have been
the loser at the end of book and season one, but Joffrey’s
disregard for basic standards of justice will return to haunt him
as it did his predecessors. The true moral of the story is that
when good rules are disregarded, disorder and ruin
follow…
Read the whole thing
here, and check out Reason TV’s
interview with Auburn University’s Matthew McCaffrey, who
explains the economic lessons to be drawn from Game of
Thrones, below:
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