The Political Science Interpretivist

On October 16 th , this year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will begin its 20 th National Congress. This is the biggest event of 2022 for the CCP, because the Congress only meets every five years. It will last for between a week and 10 days. It takes place in the Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square, in Beijing. Among other things, the delegates will vote on the New 5 Year Plan, vote on revisions to past 5 Year Plans, and elect the Party’s Central Committee from among their membership. The Central Committee is the governing body of the CCP. It has about 300 members. The Committee members will then select its General Secretary, or chief executive officer. Most China Watchers expect to see Xi Jinping elected to his third term as General Secretary. No Presidential Election Little known to Western media is that no presidential election is held by a Party National Congress. According to the Constitution for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the president is to be elec

  Warnings about the 2022 Midterms that Biden had Better Heed                                                                                                                                                               Introduction   Earl Ofari Hutchinson has written an interesting, well researched, and quite readable book. As the title* indicates, the book is about the importance of midterm elections in the US political process, and about why the voter turnout is often a fraction of that for presidential elections. The book came out in September 2022, and the discussion in it concerns the midterms of November 2022. The need for a book on the midterms is clear. The old joke among political pollsters is that when man-in-the-street surveys are conducted in the USA by asking folks if they were planning to vote in the midterms, most replied, “What are midterms?” Thus, Mr. Hutchinson addresses an educational need for Americans. Hutchinson, however, is not coy about his own political