Politics in fiction

Written works

The Republic (ca. 360 BCE) by Plato

Panchatantra (ca. 200 BCE) by Vishnu Sarma

Utopia (1516) by Thomas More

The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys (1578) by Jan Kochanowski

Don Quixote (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes

Simplicius Simplicissimus (1668) by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan

Persian Letters (1721) by Montesquieu

Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift

Candide (1759) by Voltaire

The History and Adventures of an Atom (1769) by Tobias Smollett

Fables and Parables (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki

The Return of the Deputy (1790) by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz

The Partisan Leader (1836) by Nathaniel Beverley Tucker

Barnaby Rudge (1841) by Charles Dickens

The Betrothed (1842) by Alessandro Manzoni

Coningsby (1844) by Benjamin Disraeli

Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) by Benjamin Disraeli

Tancred (1847) by Benjamin Disraeli

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens

Max Havelaar (1860) by Multatuli

Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev

The Palliser novels (1864–1879) by Anthony Trollope

War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy

Demons, also known as The Possessed or The Devils (1872), by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope (1875)

Honest John Vane (1875) by John William De Forest

The Gilded Age (1876) by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

Democracy: An American Novel (1880) by Henry Adams

An Enemy of the People (1882), play by Henrik Ibsen

An American Politician (1884) by F. Marion Crawford

The Princess Casamassima (1886) by Henry James

Prince Otto (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Bostonians (1886) by Henry James

Noli Me Tangere (1887) by José Rizal

Looking Backward (1888) by Edward Bellamy

El filibusterismo (1891) by José Rizal

The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope

Pharaoh (1895) by Bolesław Prus

Heart of Darkness (1899) by Joseph Conrad

NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages (1900) Jack Adams pseudonym for A. O. Grigsby and Mary P. Lowe

The Riddle of the Sands (1903) by Erskine Childers

Nostromo (1904) by Joseph Conrad

The Czar's Spy (1905) by William Le Queux

The Four Just Men (1905) by Edgar Wallace

King Leopold's Soliloquy (1905) by Mark Twain

The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) by Thomas Dixon, Jr.

The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair

The Secret Agent (1907) by Joseph Conrad

The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London

Under Western Eyes (1911) by Joseph Conrad

Philip Dru: Administrator (1912) by Edward M. House

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914) by Robert Tressell

The Underdogs (1915) by Mariano Azuela

Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Fall of a Nation (1916) by Thomas Dixon, Jr.

We (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Bunt (The Revolt) (1922) by Władysław Reymont

Metropolis (1925) by Thea von Harbou

The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka

The Castle (1926) by Franz Kafka

The Shadow of the Caudillo (1929) by Martín Luis Guzmán

Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley

The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (1932) by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz

Stamboul Train (1932) by Graham Greene

Black Mischief (1932) by Evelyn Waugh

The Forbidden Territory (1933) by Dennis Wheatley

Antoine Bloye (1933) by Paul Nizan

Fontamara (1933) by Ignazio Silone

The President (1933, published 1946) by Miguel Ángel Asturias

Burmese Days (1934) by George Orwell

The House of the Four Winds (1935) by John Buchan

It Can't Happen Here (1935) by Sinclair Lewis

Strange Passage (1935) by Theodore Irwin

Bread and Wine (1936) by Ignazio Silone

The Pretender (1936) by Lion Feuchtwanger

Alamut (1938) by Vladimir Bartol

The Confidential Agent (1939) by Graham Greene

Exit a Dictator (1939) by E. Phillips Oppenheim

The Gladiators (1939) by Arthur Koestler

Darkness at Noon (1940) by Arthur Koestler

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (1945) by George Orwell

A Bell for Adano (1945) by John Hersey

El Señor Presidente (1946) by Miguel Ángel Asturias

All the King's Men (1946) by Robert Penn Warren

Lonely Crusade (1947) by Chester Himes

Walden Two (1948) by B. F. Skinner

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell

Dark Green, Bright Red (1950) by Gore Vidal

In the Wet (1953) by Nevil Shute

The Outsider (1953) by Richard Wright

The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene

The Shark and the Sardines (1956) by Juan José Arévalo

The Last Hurrah (1956) by Edwin O'Connor

Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand

The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957) by John Steinbeck

The Ugly American (1958) by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick

Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe

Act of Mercy [U.S. title: Guns of Darkness] (1959) by Francis Clifford

The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon

Advise and Consent (1959) by Allen Drury

The Best Man (1960) by Gore Vidal (play)

Catch 22 (1961) by Joseph Heller

The Golden Notebook (1962) by Doris Lessing

Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey

Corridors of Power (1964) by C.P. Snow

The Man (1964) by Irving Wallace

Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert

The Squares of the City (1965) by John Brunner

All in the Family (1966) by Edwin O'Connor

A Man of the People, by Chinua Achebe (1966)

The Comedians (1966) by Graham Greene

The Late Bourgeois World (1966) by Nadine Gordimer

Cancer Ward (1967) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Washington, D.C. (1967) by Gore Vidal

Z (1969) by Vassilis Vassilikos

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo (1969)

Being There, by Jerzy Kosiński (1971)

The Lorax (1971) by Dr. Seuss

Burr (1973) by Gore Vidal

Reasons of State (1974) by Alejo Carpentier

I, the Supreme (1974) by Augusto Roa Bastos

The Chocolate War (1974) by Robert Cormier

Remember Ruben (1974) by Mongo Beti

The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Guerrillas (1975) by V. S. Naipaul

The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) by Edward Abbey

Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) by Manuel Puig

1876 (1976) by Gore Vidal

A Flag For Sunrise, by Robert Stone (1977)

The Shad Treatment, (1977) by Garrett Epps

The Dead Zone (1979) by Stephen King

A Married Man (1979) by Piers Paul Read

An Enemy of the State, by F. Paul Wilson (1980)

A Very British Coup, by Chris Mullin (1982)

Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka (1982–88)

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd (1982–88)

The Day the Leader was Killed (1983) by Naguib Mahfouz

The Floating Island (1983) by Garrett Epps

The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (1984) by Mario Vargas Llosa

First Among Equals (1984) by Jeffrey Archer

The Butter Battle Book (1984) by Dr. Seuss

The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood

Anthills of the Savannah (1987) by Chinua Achebe

Favorite Son, by Steve Sohmer, (1988)

House of Cards, by Michael Dobbs (1989)

Redemption (1990) by Tariq Ali

The Fourth K, by Mario Puzo (1990)

Vineland (1990) by Thomas Pynchon

Patriots, by Steve Sohmer (1991)

To Play the King, by Michael Dobbs (1991)

Fatherland, by Robert Harris (1992)

The Final Cut, by Michael Dobbs (1992)

American Hero, by Larry Beinhart (1994)

Blindness (1995) by Jose Saramago

Primary Colors (1996) by Joe Klein (as "Anonymous")

Absolute Power, by David Baldacci (1996)

Yo-Yo Boing! by Giannina Braschi (1998)

The Feast of the Goat (2000) by Mario Vargas Llosa

Snow (2002) by Orhan Pamuk

The Gospel According To Larry (2003) by Janet Tashjian

The Successor (2003) by Ismail Kadare

Seeing (2004) by José Saramago

De president, by Khalid Boudou (2005)

A Time to Run, by Barbara Boxer (2005)

The Polity of Beasts (2007) by Renald Iacovelli

The Writing on the Wall (2007) by Hannes Artens

The Coup, by Jamie Malanowski (2007)

The Ghost, by Robert Harris (2007)

When the White House Was Ours, by Porter Shreve (2008)

American Savior (2008) by Roland Merullo

The Best Laid Plans (2008) by Terry Fallis

United States of Banana (2011) by Giannina Braschi

What You Don't Know (2012) by David Belbin

Faultline 49 (2012) by David Danson

Occupied (2015) by Joss Sheldon

Stealing the Future (2015) by Max Hertzberg

The Little Voice (2016) by Joss Sheldon

Film

The Dark Horse (1932)

Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

The Great Dictator (1940)

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Farmer's Daughter (1947)

State of the Union (film) (1948)

All the King's Men (1949)

A Lion in the Streets (1953)

The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy — 1956 Polish film, starring Adolf Dymsza, based on the novel of the same title by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz)

Advise & Consent (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Best Man (1964)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Point of Order (1964)

Seven Days in May (1964)

Battle of Algiers (1966)

Pharaoh (1966 Polish feature film based on Bolesław Prus' novel, Pharaoh)

Z (film) (1969)

1776 (1972)

The Man (1972)

The Godfather (1972)

The Candidate (1972)

The Godfather, Part II (1974)

Being There (1979)

Seeing Red (1983)

Secret Honor (1984)

Power (1986)

Bob Roberts (1992)

The Distinguished Gentleman (1992)

Running Mates (1992)

Dave (1993)

The War Room (1993)

With Honors (1994)

The American President (1995)

Nixon (1995)

Flirting With Power (1996)

My Fellow Americans (1996)

Murder at 1600 (1997)

Wag the Dog (1997)

The Peacemaker (1997)

Absolute Power (1997, based on the 1996 novel by David Baldacci)

Bulworth (1998)

Primary Colors (1998)

The Siege (1998)

Three Kings (1999)

Dick (1999)

The Contender (2000)

Running Mates (2000)

Ali G Indahouse (2002)

The Quiet American (2002)

The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy — 2002 Polish film, starring Cezary Pazura, based on the novel of the same title by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz)

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)

The Manchurian Candidate (2004 remake of the 1962 film)

V for Vendetta (2005)

All the King's Men (2006)

An Unreasonable Man (2006)

Man of the Year (2006)

The Lives of Others (2006)

Idiocracy (2006)

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Dawn of the World (2008)

Swing Vote (2008)

Vantage Point (2008)

In the Loop (2009)

Raajneeti (2010)

2016: Obama's America (2012)

The Ides of March (2011)

The Dictator (2012)

The Campaign (2012)

Game Change (2012)

Lincoln (2012)

Television

Slattery's People (1964-65 American television series about local politics, starring Richard Crenna as a U.S. state legislator)

The Prisoner (1967)

The Adams Chronicles (1976 miniseries)

Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy (The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma — 1980 Polish TV miniseries based on the novel by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz)

Yes Minister (and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister), by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn (1980–88)

Edge of Darkness (1985)

First Among Equals (1986)

The New Statesman (1987–94)

A Very British Coup (1988)

Tanner '88 (1988)

House of Cards (1990)

Babylon 5 (1993)

A Third Choice (1996)

Spin City (1996-2002)

Nostromo (1997)

The West Wing (1999–2006)

Moncloa, ¿dígame? (2001) Sitcom about the Spanish President press office

24 (2001–10)

The Wire (2002–08)

The Project (2002)

Absolute Power (2003, 2005)

Yugo the Negotiator (2004; anime, on hostage-negotiation)

Battlestar Galactica (2004)

Commander-in-Chief (2005)

The Thick of It, by Armando Iannucci (2005)

Brotherhood (2006)

Party Animals (BBC Two, 2007)

John Adams (2008) (miniseries)

Recount (2008)

The Hollowmen (ABC1, 2008)

Change (2008)

Parks and Recreation (2009)

Borgen (2010-2013)

Boss (2011)

Scandal (2012)

Political Animals (2012)

Veep, by Armando Ianucci (2012)

House of Cards (US) (2012)

The Best Laid Plans (2014)

Musicals

Running for Office (1903)

George Washington, Jr. (1906)

Show Boat (1927)

The Threepenny Opera (1928)

Of Thee I Sing (1931)

Miss Liberty (1949)

South Pacific (1950)

Call Me Madam (1950)

The King and I (1952)

The Pajama Game (1955)

Candide (1957)

West Side Story (1958)

Fiorello! (1960)

The Sound of Music (1960)

Fiddler on the Roof (1965)

Man of La Mancha (1966)

Cabaret (1967)

1776 (1969)

Hair (1969)

Jesus Christ Superstar (1971)

Shenandoah (1975)

Chicago (1976)

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976)

Evita (1980)

Sarafina! (1988)

The Who's Tommy (1993)

Rent (1996)

Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk (1996)

Ragtime (1998)

Parade (1998)

Urinetown The Musical (2001)

Wicked (2004)

Assassins (2004)

Caroline, or Change (2004)

The Color Purple (2006)

Grey Gardens (2007)

The Scottsboro Boys (2010)

Comic strips

Pogo

Bloom County

Doonesbury

Opus

Outland

Pearls Before Swine