I’d say most positions are in between complete conflict theory and complete mistake theory (though they’re not necessarily ‘transitional’, if people tend to stay there once they’ve reached them). It all depends on how much of political disagreements you think is fueled by different interests and how much is fueled by different beliefs. I also think that the best position lies there, somewhere in between. It is in fact correct that a fair amount of political conflict happens due to different interests, so a complete mistake theorist would frequently fail to predict why politics works the way it does.
(Of course, even if you agree with this, you may think that most people should become more mistake theorist, on the margin.)
Link to SSC’s explanation of the concept.
I’d say most positions are in between complete conflict theory and complete mistake theory (though they’re not necessarily ‘transitional’, if people tend to stay there once they’ve reached them). It all depends on how much of political disagreements you think is fueled by different interests and how much is fueled by different beliefs. I also think that the best position lies there, somewhere in between. It is in fact correct that a fair amount of political conflict happens due to different interests, so a complete mistake theorist would frequently fail to predict why politics works the way it does.
(Of course, even if you agree with this, you may think that most people should become more mistake theorist, on the margin.)