In political science, 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 gover ...

s in a society and often involves the use of paper decrees, 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. The Greek military junta of 1967–74 used political engineering utilizing a coup d'état to dissolve the democratic system of Greece 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 Social engineering may refer to: * Social engineering (political science), a means of influencing particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale * Social engineering (security), obtaining confidential information by manipulating and/or ...

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