Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior and Instititutions

This text was assigned reading for my political theory class, but I might hold on to it after the class is over. A concise explanation of rational decision making in politics. This text is easy to read and understand at all levels, and provides a nice overview of all important concepts, in particular, methods of strategic voting. Great as a text, but still a good read for anyone with a particular interest in how a democracy works on a logical and rational level.

Simply, this book is awesome. It can basically economize your time understanding the tenets and applications of rational choice theory as well as the comparative politics itself. You don't need to read expensive, thick, and wordy textbooks in the rational choice any more, which ironically have you more complicated through the mathematical representation. Unlike such textbooks, "Analyzing Politics" is inexpensive, thin, and non-formal; but at the same time, you will come out of the reading with a fair understanding of the agenda at issues. This book actually covers everything you need for the fundamental understanding of rational choice; rationality, social choice, majority rule, voting methods, electoral systems, collective action problem, public/private goods, externalities, institutions, legislatures, bureaucracy, courts, and even parliamentary democracies. With less than 500 pages, the writing is fairly accessible and is well structured by the agenda, along with very useful real-life examples showing how the model fits well with the theoretical arguments. Since this book is intended to introduce rational choice paradigms to the broader audiences, it does not provide new arguments or modeling, which experienced scholars may find it to be extremely lacking. Regardless, this book is extremely useful to the experienced scholars, who want to rejuvenate their basic understanding of the field, and also to the inexperienced scholars, who want to begin involving the game of the field. I have to admit that this is among few academic books that I have actually re-visited for the second reading. Reading mathematically-oriented renowned books does not necessary make you tough, but sometimes, reading the basics (like this book) will make you more confident to explain what you need to explain (at exams or conversations). Once in a while, some say that numbers are more important than words, but in a rational choice, words still speak for themselves, demonstrating the contribution made by Shepsle and Bonchek for making the field more accessible, and more importantly for soothing the wider misunderstanding that "rational choice is difficult to understand." Honestly, I am glad that I come to find and read this book as late as in 2008. I am late in the game in this sense, but finally.

Rational choice theory has become an important perspective in many of the social sciences. The essence of rational choice theory is presented quite straightforwardly in this book by Shepsle and Bonchek. Indeed, I have placed this book on reserve in some of my classes, to introduce students to basic concepts and assumptions of the perspective. The basic starting concepts include: (a) preferences, which represent various of humanity's want and needs; (b) self-interest, by which people behave according to their preferences. Making decisions occurs under conditions of uncertainty. As the authors put it, (page 18), "More often than not, individuals may not have an exact sense of how an instrument or behavior they might adopt relates to the outcomes they value." Beliefs, another key concept, ". . .describe the hunches an individual has concerning the efficacy of a given instrument or behavior for obtaining something he or she wants. . . ." (page 18). Beliefs, then, connect instruments to outcomes. When a person acts in agreement with both preferences and beliefs, the end result is "instrumental rationality." For a rational choice theorist, any choice is rational if it is in agreement with one's preferences. People develop a preference ordering, with some ranking higher than others. When one uses higher ranking rather than lower ranking preferences to determine what action to take, the result is "maximization" of results. Shepsle and Bonchek put it thus (page 34): "Making a decision under conditions of risk involves choosing from among alternative lotteries. A rational choice entails choosing the 'best' lottery. The rule of rational choice is known as the Principle of Expected Utility." In essence, one would follow this principle by selecting the choice that maximizes payoffs in terms of one's preference ordering. Rationality calls for people to make decisions on the basis of expected utility. The key underlying assumption is that people can carry out analyses consistent with the principle of expected utility, engaging in a sort of rational means-ends analysis. While this is a major theoretical orientation now, it is subject to considerable criticism as well. There are many well done critiques "out there." Nonetheless, if one wants an introduction to rational choice theory, this is a pretty good starting point.

This book analyzes politics from the ground level up. It begins by analyzing individual decision-making, moves onto the collective decision-making processes of groups, and then to the institutions of government. Each of the higher levels is built upon the foundation of the preceding level. This allows the authors to explain such (apparent) paradoxes as how a group of people--each making a rational decision--can produce irrational collective decisions, why a group (as opposed to an individual) can not actually have a preference, and so why the outcome of an election may not represent anything as amorphous as "the will of the people" but be determined by the procedure used in the election process (See also, William Riker's The Art of Political Manipulation, particularly the amusing yet shocking chapter, "The Flying Club."). Be forewarned, this book is about rational choice theory, and how it explains political outcomes. Whereas a Marxist or social constructionst approach would analyze how group or social structure affects individual choices, Shepsle and Boncheck are analyzing how individual choices create social structure. It's not that easy of a read, as it includes formulas and graphs that most people do not intuitively grasp. But one of the great successes of this book is that most of it can be understood even if you ignore those things. The brief case studies, which show how the ideas apply to actual political issues and events, are particularly well-written, and make the book understandable for the average person. I would add, that despite the "bad" reputation of rational choice theorists, Shepsle's a heck of a nice guy. Not at all the kind of arrogant snob you might picture as the typical Harvard prof!

I am using this book as the primary text of a graduate level course in Rational Action Theory. It is very clear and easy to read, and takes several different and complex matters, and simplifies them. The subject matter involves: How we make decisions, Politics, Statics, and Probability. Of all material that I have read on the subject matter including The Federalist Papers, The Prince, Microeconomics and Behavior, and An Economic Theory of Democracy, this is by far the easiest to understand. I rate this book four stars. I would have rated it five stars if it used examples that were more interesting, and held the reader to the relatively dry subject matter a little better. I am not trying to find fault with this very good work. I just think that it could have been even better if some minor changes had been made.