Analytical PoliticsTo 'analyse' means to break into components and understand. But new readers find modern mathematical theories of politics so inaccessible that analysis is difficult. Where does one start? Analytical Politics is an introduction to analytical theories of politics, explicitly designed both for the interested professional and students in political science. We cannot evaluate how well governments perform without some baseline for comparison: what should governments be doing? This book focuses on the role of the 'center' in politics, drawing from the classical political theories of Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, and others. The main questions in Analytical Politics involve the existence and stability of the center; when does it exist? When should the center guide policy? How do alternative voting rules help in discovering the center? An understanding of the work reviewed here is essential for anyone who hopes to evaluate the performance or predict the actions of democratic governments. |
Contents
Basics | 1 |
The analysis of politics | 3 |
The spatial model of Downs and Black One policy dimension | 21 |
Two dimensions Elusive equilibrium | 50 |
Multiple dimensions Weighted Euclidean distance | 73 |
Social choice and other voting models | 90 |
Extensions | 115 |
Uncertainty and policy preference | 117 |
Recent advances | 155 |
Strategic voting nonseparability and probabilistic voting | 157 |
The nature of issues in mass elections | 180 |
Notes | 213 |
| 225 | |
Glossary | 241 |
Solutions to selected exercises | 245 |
| 249 | |
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Common terms and phrases
$80 million affine transformation agenda alternatives American Political Science analytical politics approval voting assumptions Borda count broccoli budget millions candidate carrots chapter choose citizens classical model classical spatial model collective choice committee voting complementarity Condorcet winner consider democracy depicted dimension directional theory distribution of voter Downsian electorate ences enfranchised equilibrium example Figure Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem Hun-Gats ideal point ideology important indifference curves institutions issues Journal of Political KMVT majority rule mass elections matrix means median position median voter median voter theorem middle Nash equilibrium nonseparability ordered dimension Ordeshook outcome Panel paradox Pareto set parties platform policy space political choice prediction preference function probabilistic voting problem Project 2 budget proposal Public Choice requires result Riker Rosenthal S₁ S₂ salience simple single-peaked social choice society spatial model spatial theory status quo strategic Suppose symmetric theorem tions tive turnout U.S. Congress vector x₁ xmed