Applications of modern decision theory to the study of political science. Topics include: individual decision theory and rational choice; game theory and human interaction; and social choice theory and the mechanisms by which individual choices are aggregated into collective choices. Political institutions such as voting rules, legislatures, parties, and hierarchy, alternative voting methods and political institutions, and how societies solve some practical distributive problems. Although course has no mathematical prerequisites, students should be willing to consider abstract models and follow logically rigorous arguments. Not open to students who have taken Political Science 671S.
