What is a Good Society? What values should we has a society hold to be Good and True? These aren't light questions, but we often neglect them. I believe that many "political" differences can ultimately be traced back to the weights placed on these initial axioms of value. Ruchira Paul comments on a new book who explores happiness and amity from an economic and philosophical perspective:
I frequently irritate champions of the unbridled free market who trumpet the triumphs of nations such as India and China and the recent impressive rise in their GDP, economic growth indices etc. I keep whining about lack of infrastructure, rampant governmental corruption, unequal access to education and other civic amenities, disparities in income and civil rights.
This is very much true for interest-group-coaltion politics. To some extent, the varying coalitions are defined entirely by differences in preferences. I think this is largely the case for politics today in the U.S.