Methods for individual choice in the face of political alternatives. The role of individual decision making in orienting political behavior and determining how and when political actors come into conflict or behave cooperatively.
Athena Title
Game Theory
Prerequisite
POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will develop analytical reasoning that they can apply to new cases.
Students will get a basic understanding of game theory.
Students will understand strategy at a sophisticated level.
Students will be exposed to experiments and how they can be applied to strategic decision making.
Students will be able to apply models of strategic choice to common problems in politics, including international diplomacy, voter turnout, and the foundations of political cooperation.
Students will be able to utilize spatial voting models and the Median Voter Theorem to explain the behavior of political institutions, such as the U.S. Supreme Court and legislative committees.
Students will be able to identify and explain complex theories of strategy in multidimensional environments, such as McKelvey's Chaos Theorem.
Students will be able to differentiate between theoretical game-theoretic predictions and actual human behavior through participation in and analysis of in-class game demonstrations.
Topical Outline
1. Course Introduction
2. Prerequisites for an individual's rational choice
3. Binary relations
4. Aggregating individual preferences into a collective choice
5. Tensions between individual rationality and collective rationality
6. Arrow's Theorem
7. Robustness issues related to Arrow's results
a. Black's Theorem
b. May's Theorem
c. Plott's Theorem
d. McKelvey's Theorem
8. Implications of Arrow's results for political institutions, including
a. Congress
b. Bureaucratic Agencies
c. Federal Courts
9. Implications of Arrow's results for elections
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
