PSCI 3225 Strategy and Politics

Instructor Contact:

Dalton Dorr, PhD Candidate

Email: Dalton.Dorr@colorado.edu

About the Course:

Focuses on the rational choice approach to understanding political decision making.  Introduces students to the tools and methods of game-theoretic reasoning, and examines the strategic logic of many forms of political decision-making, including voting, lawmaking, and international conflict.

Course Prerequisites: PSCI 1101 or PSCI 2012 or PSCI 2223

Objectives:

By the end of this course students should be able to coherently discuss rational-choice decision-making processes on political and other social issues through the lenses of strategic interactions. Students will learn to apply mathematical models in a rational-choice framework to explain both observed and unobserved outcomes from political events. Most importantly, students will identify the strengths and weaknesses of using rational-choice analysis and will evaluate rational-choice arguments about political issues.

Required Texts:

James Morrow. 1994. Game Theory for Political Scientists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

Grading (out of 100 points):

A: >93; A-: 92-90

B+: 89-87; B: 86-83; B-: 82-80

C+: 79-77; C: 76-73; C-: 72-70

D+: 69-67; D: 76-73; D-: 62-60

F: <60