How computer models became fundamental to political practice—from winning elections to global affairs—and how we imagine political futures as a computing problem.
For more than six decades, the public has been promised that computers will revolutionize politics, both nationally and internationally. In SimPolitics, Fenwick McKelvey traces the entwined history of politics and computers from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He shows how programmers, consultants, academics, political scientists, and peace activists all worked—sometimes in tandem, sometimes not—to build simulations to win campaigns, predict coups, forecast the future, and render politics as legible as a spreadsheet.
Drawing on novel archival and historical research, McKelvey recounts the history of efforts to simulate politics by building models of elections, voters, and international relations. Comparing attempts in the United States to simulate domestic electoral politics and international affairs, he reveals the unexamined connections and conflicts between the two projects. His book provides a helpful guide to taking stock of exaggerated claims that AI and technology will fix politics, while presenting the long history of such promised technological fixes.
ENDORSEMENTS
"SimPolitics is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how computers have shaped our political imagination—and our democracy. " —Fred Turner, Stanford University; author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture
"McKelvey artfully demonstrates that the histories of modeling and simulating politics still hold the potential to produce more diverse, more equitable, and more democratic alternatives to what we have now." —Orit Halpern, Dresden University of Technology; author of The Smartness Mandate
"With rich detail, Fenwick McKelvey's brilliant SimPolitics urgently reminds us that we should spend less time worrying about perfecting simulations and more time thinking about their politics." —Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; author of Platforms, Power, and Politics
“This incisive analysis of the promise and danger of computerizing human worlds is a must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of simulation and human-machine relations." —Joy Rohde, University of Michigan; author of Armed with Expertise
How computer models became fundamental to political practice—from winning elections to global affairs—and how we imagine political futures as a computing problem.
For more than six decades, the public has been promised that computers will revolutionize politics, both nationally and internationally. In SimPolitics, Fenwick McKelvey traces the entwined history of politics and computers from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He shows how programmers, consultants, academics, political scientists, and peace activists all worked—sometimes in tandem, sometimes not—to build simulations to win campaigns, predict coups, forecast the future, and render politics as legible as a spreadsheet.
Drawing on novel archival and historical research, McKelvey recounts the history of efforts to simulate politics by building models of elections, voters, and international relations. Comparing attempts in the United States to simulate domestic electoral politics and international affairs, he reveals the unexamined connections and conflicts between the two projects. His book provides a helpful guide to taking stock of exaggerated claims that AI and technology will fix politics, while presenting the long history of such promised technological fixes.
Praise
ENDORSEMENTS
"SimPolitics is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how computers have shaped our political imagination—and our democracy. " —Fred Turner, Stanford University; author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture
"McKelvey artfully demonstrates that the histories of modeling and simulating politics still hold the potential to produce more diverse, more equitable, and more democratic alternatives to what we have now." —Orit Halpern, Dresden University of Technology; author of The Smartness Mandate
"With rich detail, Fenwick McKelvey's brilliant SimPolitics urgently reminds us that we should spend less time worrying about perfecting simulations and more time thinking about their politics." —Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; author of Platforms, Power, and Politics
“This incisive analysis of the promise and danger of computerizing human worlds is a must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of simulation and human-machine relations." —Joy Rohde, University of Michigan; author of Armed with Expertise
