political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, political engineering is the designing of

political institution In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state. It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comprizes the govern ...

s in a society and often involves the use of paper

decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used ...

s, in the form of laws, referendums, ordinances, or otherwise, to try to achieve some desired effect.Political Engineering: The Design of Institutions, Dr. Jeffrey R. Lax, Department of Politics, New York University
/ref> The criteria and constraints used in such design vary depending on the optimization methods used. Usually democratic political systems have not been deemed suitable as subjects of political engineering methods. Political engineering, using suboptimal methods or criteria, can sometimes yield disastrous results as in the case of attempting to engineer a previously democratic country's political landscape by such methods as, for example, a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

. The

Greek military junta of 1967–74 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

used political engineering utilizing a coup d'état to dissolve the democratic system of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

with catastrophic results. Political engineering can also be employed to design alternative voting procedures in a democratic system.Reilly, B., 1997. Preferential voting and political engineering: A comparative study. '' Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics'', 35(1), pp.1-19. doi
10.1080/14662049708447736
Archived page:https://web.archive.org/web/20080314154825/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3504/is_199703/ai_n8303088 In the social arena the counterpart of political engineering is social engineering.

References

Further reading