How Yuval Noah Harari might approach Political Science

To understand 'political science' is not to discover immutable natural laws of power, but to dissect the most elaborate and potent fictions Homo sapiens has ever invented. We are animals, yes, animals with astounding cognitive abilities, but our dominion over the planet stems less from individual rationality and more from our unique capacity to create and believe in shared myths.

Consider the foundational concept: the state. Is it a biological entity? A geographical inevitability? No. A state, a nation, a system of laws, even 'human rights' itself – these are all inter-subjective realities. They exist only in the shared imagination of millions. An ant colony is governed by genetics and pheromones. A chimpanzee troop by direct observation and physical dominance. But a nation-state, comprising millions of strangers, can cooperate on projects spanning decades and continents because they all believe in the same story about its borders, its flag, its history, and its shared destiny.

'Political science' is, therefore, the study of how these fictions are constructed, maintained, challenged, and ultimately, how they enable cooperation on a scale no other animal can achieve. It tracks the evolution of these stories, from the divine right of kings to the social contract, from tribal allegiances to global institutions. Each shift represents not a discovery of a new truth, but a rewriting of the collective narrative, a new fiction designed to organize power, distribute resources, and manage conflict.

The pressing questions for 'political science' in our era, then, are not about optimising existing structures, but about what happens when the dominant stories begin to unravel. What happens when our fictions of sovereignty clash with global challenges like climate change, or when…

Imagined perspective — an AI synthesis grounded in Yuval Noah Harari’s recorded ideas and methods, not a quotation or a statement they actually made.