Abstract
This chapter describes four interdisciplinary fields originated and defined by Ashu M. G. Solo in 2011 called political engineering, public policy engineering, computational politics, and computational public policy. Political engineering is the application of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science to solving problems in politics. Computational politics is the application of computer science or mathematics to solving problems in politics. Political engineering and computational politics include, but are not limited to, principles and methods for political decision-making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, simulation, and expression. Public policy engineering is the application of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science to solving problems in public policy. Computational public policy is the application of computer science or mathematics to solving problems in public policy. Public policy engineering and computational public policy include, but are not limited to, principles and methods for public policy formulation, decision-making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, and simulation. The chapter describes the scope of research and development in these fields, provides examples of research and development in these fields, and provides possible university curricula for academic programs in these fields.
TopPolitical Engineering And Computational Politics
The term political engineering (Wikipedia, 2011) has been previously used to refer to designing political institutions. This is a poor usage of the term and an abuse of the word engineering.
Engineering consists of theoretical engineering and applied engineering. Theoretical engineering is the creative development of mathematics, natural science, technical principles, or technical methods for usage in the development, analysis, characterization, modeling, control, automation, optimization, forecasting, simulation, or visualization of devices, algorithms, components, systems, machines, apparatuses, structures, processes, operations, or materials. Applied engineering is the creative application of mathematics, natural science, technical principles, or technical methods for the development, analysis, characterization, modeling, control, automation, optimization, forecasting, simulation, or visualization of devices, algorithms, components, systems, machines, apparatuses, structures, processes, operations, or materials. These definitions of engineering, theoretical engineering, and applied engineering are by the author of this chapter.
As it has been previously used, the term political engineering does not require the creative application or development of mathematics, natural science, technical principles, or technical methods for the development, analysis, characterization, modeling, control, automation, optimization, forecasting, simulation, or visualization of devices, algorithms, components, systems, machines, apparatuses, structures, processes, operations, or materials. Therefore, the author of this chapter is giving a new and more appropriate definition to the term political engineering. Just like many terms in the dictionary have multiple meanings, the term political engineering can have multiple meanings.
As defined by the author of this chapter, political engineering is the application of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science to solving problems in politics. Computational politics is the application of computer science or mathematics to solving problems in politics. Therefore, computational politics is a subset of political engineering. Political engineering and computational politics include, but are not limited to, principles and methods for political decision making, political analysis, political modeling, political optimization, political forecasting, political simulation, and political expression. Political engineering and computational politics are more technically, computationally, mathematically, and scientifically rigorous approaches to the field of political science.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Multidimensional Matrix Calculus: Multidimensional matrix calculus is a new branch of mathematics created by Ashu M. G. Solo that extends classical matrix calculus to any number of dimensions and that has numerous applications in many branches of engineering, math, natural science, social science, and other fields.
E-Government: E-government refers to the use of information and communication technologies in government operations, access to government data, interactions between government agencies, interactions between government and citizens, and interactions between government and external organizations.
Data Mining: Data mining is the science of sorting through data to establish relationships and identify patterns.
Multidimensional Matrix Mathematics: Multidimensional matrix mathematics is a new branch of mathematics created by Ashu M. G. Solo that extends classical matrix mathematics to any number of dimensions and that has numerous applications in many branches of engineering, math, natural science, social science, and other fields. The subsets of multidimensional matrix mathematics are multidimensional matrix algebra and multidimensional matrix calculus.
Computational Public Policy: Computational public policy is a field originated and defined by Ashu M. G. Solo that involves the application of computer science or mathematics to solving problems in public policy. Computational public policy includes, but is not limited to, principles and methods for public policy formulation, decision making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, and simulation.
Political Engineering: Political engineering is a field originated and defined by Ashu M. G. Solo that involves the application of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science to solving problems in politics. Political engineering includes, but is not limited to, principles and methods for political decision making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, simulation, and expression.
Deepfakes: Deepfakes are videos featuring humans manipulated by computational intelligence.
Multidimensional Matrix Algebra: Multidimensional matrix algebra is a new branch of mathematics created by Ashu M. G. Solo that extends classical matrix algebra to any number of dimensions and that has numerous applications in many branches of engineering, math, natural science, social science, and other fields.
Engineering: Engineering consists of theoretical engineering and applied engineering. Theoretical engineering is the creative development of mathematics, natural science, technical principles, or technical methods for usage in the development, analysis, characterization, modeling, control, automation, optimization, forecasting, simulation, or visualization of devices, algorithms, components, systems, machines, apparatuses, structures, processes, operations, or materials. Applied engineering is the creative application of mathematics, natural science, technical principles, or technical methods for the development, analysis, characterization, modeling, control, automation, optimization, forecasting, simulation, or visualization of devices, algorithms, components, systems, machines, apparatuses, structures, processes, operations, or materials. These definitions are by Ashu M. G. Solo.
Public Policy Engineering: Public policy engineering is a field originated and defined by Ashu M. G. Solo that involves the application of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science to solving problems in public policy. Public policy engineering includes, but is not limited to, principles and methods for public policy formulation, decision making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, and simulation.
Computational Politics: Computational politics is a field originated and defined by Ashu M. G. Solo that involves the application of computer science or mathematics to solving problems in politics. Computational politics includes, but is not limited to, principles and methods for political decision making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, simulation, and expression.
Fuzzy Logic: Fuzzy logic is a field created by Lotfi A. Zadeh for information arising from computational perception and cognition that is uncertain, imprecise, vague, partially true, or without sharp boundaries.
Data Analytics: Data analytics is the science of examining raw data to draw conclusions about it.