SimPolitics America's quest to solve politics with computers Fenwick McKelvey

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McKelvey, Fenwick, author.

Series:

Information policy series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political participation--Computer simulation.

Election forecasting--Methodology.

Voting research--Methodology.

Politics and government.

Politics, Practical.

United States.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press [2026]

Summary:

"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"-- MIT Press Direct

Contents:

From 480 to 538 : the origins of the computational imaginary of politics

Models, prototypes, and imaginaries

Political forecasting and the scientific study of elections

The modeled American voter

Addressing American voters

Make-believe on mathematical principles

The world on a wire

Worlding models

Are other computer simulations possible?

Let x = x or the legacies of a computational imaginary of politics

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (MIT Press Direct, viewed June 30, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version McKelvey, Fenwick SimPolitics

ISBN:

9780262053204

0262053209

9780262053211

0262053217

OCLC:

1601158378

Access Restriction:

Some versions Open access versions available from some providers open access