A chess term referring to a situation in which any possible move in a game will weaken a player’s position; in politics, it defines the constraints facing a party or lawmaker stuck in a tough spot.
Zugzwang is German for “compulsion to move,” and its use in chess literature is said to date to the mid-1800s. Like several other jargon words (“Borked,” “squish”) we would posit that its popularity is at least partly due to the fact that it’s fun to say.
It surfaced this week on Vox.com, where Matthew Yglesias sought to explain House Speaker John Boehner’s pursuit of a lawsuit against President Obama. Yglesias argued that “the best thing for House Republicans to do this summer and fall is nothing,” given Obama’s low approval ratings and the strong likelihood that the GOP will do well in the midterm elections. “But conservative activists won’t tolerate a pass strategy,” he wrote. “They hate Obama and want Boehner to do something that expresses that hatred. Lawsuits are a milder move than impeachment, so given the realities of the situation the litigation is arguably a savvy move by Boehner rather than a blunder.”
Zugzwang also arose in Foreign Policy, as Alec Luhn applied it to Russian President Vladmir Putin’s handling of the recent Malaysian Airlines shoot-down in the Ukraine. “On the one hand, new sanctions could take a serious toll on Russia’s economy … But on the other hand, Putin cannot abandon the conflict in eastern Ukraine after investing so much political capital, both domestic and international, into the conflict with Kiev,” Luhn wrote.
And three years ago, political data expert Nate Silver – then still with The New York Times – said the term described the federal budget debate. Silver noted the public’s demand for reducing the budget deficit conflicted with its desires for job creation (which can entail deficit spending), along with its aversion to raising taxes and cutting spending while maintaining its highly protective attitude toward entitlement programs. “Try to find a winning move given this set of constraints imposed by public opinion,” he wrote.