Models I've Known
According to Edmund Burke (1790), the expertise, access to information and national focus of an MP should lead them to engage in this model of representative behavior.
What is the trustee model of representation.
In the classic principal agent example of voters (principals) and legislators (agents), the principal is less likely to _____ the agent due to the cost burden of time.
What is monitor
Political power is dispersed across many competing groups in society rather than concentrated in a single elite, class, or institution. No single group dominates — instead, outcomes emerge from bargaining, competition, and coalition-building among many actors.
What is pluralism.
This economic theory underlies many political behavior models.
What is rational choice theory.
In the Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes (1651) suggests that citizens engage in a social contract whereby power is centralized in a body of men or a single sovereign, but that power not be shared between them. What event shaped Hobbes' view on the dangers of 'separating powers'?
What is the English/British Civil War (1642–1651)
Fenno (1978) gives us three goals for legislators that seek to explain the majority of their behavior in office.
What is election/re-election; having power; and making good policy.
A head of state is not aware that their health minister holds a controversial view (not aligned with ther own) on an issue until after that issue becomes salient in the news. This is an example of what asymmetry in information problem?
What is moral hazard.
In political science or social science context, this approach means describing or explaining how things actually are, without making judgments about how they should be.
What is a positive approach.
These rewards and punishments are tools governments might use to solve dilemmas like the tragedy of the commons.
What are incentives.
In Federalist 51, Madison says "You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
What three ways do the federalists say to accomplish the latter?
What are elections, separation of powers and checks and balances.
This model of voting behavior begins with sociological factors like group membership and family influence to explain party identification in American politics.
What is the Michigan Model (from the American Voter by Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes 1960)
A voter must choose between two candidates in a primary. They are both from the same party as the voter and they're unsure who to vote for. This is an example of what kind of asymmetric information problem?
What is adverse selection.
When an individual enjoys the benefits of a collective good without contributing to its provision.
What is free-riding.
In the classic prisoner's dilemma problem, both players will end up _____ based on self-interest and inability to communicate.
What is defecting
A key shift in political science as a discipline happened after WWII. This period also ushered in a boom in the social sciences more generally (e.g. psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, etc.).
What is the behavioral revolution.
Pitkin (1967) provides us with three ways to consider how groups look at the promise and actions of representatives. These are____.
Symbolic; Descriptive; Substantive
The key conflict between principal and agent revolves around these two things.
The “price” those who do not get what they want must pay to arrive at a decision.
What is conformity cost.
According to Olson (1971), rational, self-interested individuals will not voluntarily contribute to a collective good, even when it would benefit them to have it provided. This is the basic assumption of the ____ problem.
What is the collective action problem.
The Federalists wrote 85 essays under the pseudoname publius outlining how the right institutional design might mitigate the risks of delegating power to government -- all in support of this policy goal.
What is encouraging states to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
This solution to collective action problems around the provision of public goods centers around an individual or group gaining a surplus for the provision of that good. It also helps explain how government privatization might occur.
What is the political entrepreneur model from Frohlich, Oppenheimer and Young (1971).
The four key assumptions of the principal-agent problem are _____.
What is (1) no bargaining; (2) credible commitment; (3) conflict between goals of actors; (4) asymmetric information.
A principal offers a contract at $80k. The agent would have accepted AND followed orders (i.e., not defecting) for $50k. The $30k difference is called this.
What is the reservation utility.
According to Lave & March 1975, a good model is ___.
What is parsimonious, concerned with justice and testable.
Enlightenment thinkers Locke, Rousseau, and Hobbes all used the state of nature to justify this idea that underlies delegation of power by the people to government in some form.
What is the social contract.