Military dictators, democrats, and communists all governed somewhere in Latin America during the past decade. It is hard to find more political diversity in such close proximity anywhere. To make sense of it, we must find ways to generate coherent and convincing explanations of the ways Latin Americans behave. In particular, we need to know what government means to them, why some of them disagree so intensely on many fundamental political and economic issues, and how they resolve disputes that are so passionate and profound.

A political game

One way to begin our inquiry is to study politics as if it were analogous to a game. The game idea is helpful not because politics is primarily recreational; obviously it is not. Politics affects the most fundamental aspects of human life, sometimes cruelly. What makes the game metaphor valuable is the way it helps us see politics as a dynamic process involving contests among people with different ideas about government and its purpose. It directs us to examine the rules followed, both formal and informal, and to study players and how they collaborate and compete with one another.

Politics is part of social life. It derives in part from a need to resolve conflicts among people who cannot resolve all of their disagreements spontaneously to everyone's satisfaction. Even in what appear to be the most orderly societies disagreements arise over everything from ways to assure personal safety to the amount of taxes that one must pay.