More Than a Game: Sports and Politics

Despite the increasing importance and politicization of sport, Western scholars have only recently begun to consider it as a subject worthy of serious study and research. Martin Vinokur contends that sport has become an increasingly pervasive and visibly central element in Western culture and that its function as a political tool is likely to grow still more in the 1990s, as governments realize the full value of sports to the political socialization process. He shows how the German Democratic Republic and Romania in particular have used sports to help achieve their political goals. This national emphasis on sports is then contrasted to the Western governments’ approach. Finally, Vinokur focuses on the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts and the 1988 summer games in Seoul.