Choosing in Groups
Analytical Politics Revisited

This book is an introduction to the logic and analytics of group choice.

Michael C. Munger (Author), Kevin M. Munger (With)

9781107699625, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 January 2015

272 pages, 27 b/w illus. 13 tables 46 exercises
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

'I have repeatedly assigned Hinich and Munger's volume in both undergraduate and graduate courses that introduce students to rational choice, game theory, and contemporary political thought. This new version handles spatial voting models extremely well and adds much more that wasn't covered previously. The authors' work is careful and deep, illustrating that they have gone to great lengths to add substantive content while making the book more accessible to a broader audience. This is a fantastic book.' Keith L. Dougherty, University of Georgia

This book is an introduction to the logic and analytics of group choice. To understand how political institutions work, it is important to isolate what citizens - as individuals and as members of society - actually want. This book develops a means of 'representing' the preferences of citizens so that institutions can be studied more carefully. This is the first book to integrate the classical problem of constitutions with modern spatial theory, connecting Aristotle and Montesquieu with Arrow and Buchanan.

Part I. Basics: 1. The analysis of politics
2. Becoming a group: the constitution
3. Choosing in groups: an intuitive presentation
4. The formal analytics of choosing in groups
Part II. Spatial Theory: 5. Politics as spatial competition
6. Two dimensions: elusive equilibrium
Part III. Extensions: Collective Choice, Uncertainty, and Collective Action: 7. The collective-choice problem: impossibility
8. Uncertainty
9. Voting as a collective-action problem
Solutions to selected problems.

Subject Areas: Research methods: general [GPS]