CHAPTER 1 THE LOGIC OF POLITICS POWERPOINT NOTES Why Do We Need a Government options anarchy no formal rulers or rules government rulers and rules outcomes anarchy most likely outcome is violence government countries with formal rulers and rules tend to have more internal peace and better economies why do choices breed conflict conflicting interests conflicting values conflicting ideas about how to allocate limited resources The Logic of American Politics society James Madison talks of factions any group with objectives contrary to the general interests of different groups with different preferences cross cutting heterogeneous mixed up reinforcing homogeneous the same American s preferences are reinforcing Democrat s want one thing on many the consequence of this is that the rich are getting richer and the poor issues and Republicans want another the outcome is political polarization are getting poorer Republicans rich Democrats poor politics how people attempt to manage conflict the process through which individuals and groups reach agreements on a course of common or collective action even as they continue to disagree on the goals that action is intended to achieve successful politics almost always requires bargaining and compromise bargaining the issues are simple and the participants know and trust one another a form of negotiation in which two or more parties who disagree propose exchanges and concessions to find a course of acceptable collective action example the exchange between parents and their teenagers compromise a settlement in which each side concedes some preferences to secure others preferences may reflect an individual s economic situation religious values ethnic identity or some other valued interest the more people involved in the political process and as issues become more complex and divisive unstructured negotiation generally fails so what is required effective political institutions institution in a democracy an organization that manages political conflicts between political rivals helps them to find mutually acceptable solutions and makes and enforces the society s collective agreements examples Congress the presidency and the Supreme Court Constitutions and Governments nations can be thought of as organizations just like colleges or fraternities 1 most organizations require some form of rules or procedures like a constitution by laws etc constitution creates a nation s governing institutions and the set of rules prescribing the political process these institutions must and must not follow to reach and enforce collective agreements a document outlining the formal rules and institutions of government and the limits placed on its powers government consists of those institutions created by the constitution and charged with making and enforcing collective agreements the institutions and procedures through which people are ruled in government the roles are often formalized as offices subdivisions of some government departments positions that confer on their occupant s specific authority and responsibilities authority the acknowledged right of the office to make a particular decision for all participants the right to make and implement a decision Social Contract authority is distinguishable from power an officeholder s actual influence with other officeholders and as a consequence over the government s actions Collective Action Problems in democratic nations which are generally large and complex in nature every aspect of political choice presents a challenge the three general steps for solving a collective action problem are combining and ranking preferences agreeing on a course of action implementing and enforcing the collective choice there are four classes of challenges to the efforts of a group to reach and implement agreements collective action the efforts of a group to reach and implement agreements an action taken by a group of like minded individuals to achieve a common goal coordination the act of organizing a group to achieve a common goal remains a prerequisite for effective collective action even after the disincentives to individual participation that is prisoner s dilemma problems have been solved what does the group want and how will they get it large groups make coordination difficult focal point a critical ingredient to success focus identified by participants when coordinating their energies to achieve a common purpose prisoner s dilemma a situation in which two or more actors cannot agree to cooperate for fear that the other will find its interest best served by reneging on an agreement when individuals act according to their best interests taking into account what others might do the outcome isn t always the best for the group zero sum issues for which mutual gains through cooperation are not possible one party s gain is the other s loss may cause politics to break down tragedy of the commons a situation in which group members over exploit a common resource causing its destruction solution privatize collective goods free rider problem a situation in which individuals can receive the benefits from a collective activity whether or not they helped to pay for it leaving them with no incentive to contribute why should i participate if it won t make a difference 2 occurs when group members withhold their contribution to the group s undertaking this problem arises when citizens recognize that their small contribution to the collective enterprise will not affect its success or failure giving to public radio intrinsic reward paying your taxes and examples voting public vs private goods public goods goods that everyone else can use without hurting someone else goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone s consumption the National Defense force people to contribute example solution private goods goods that someone buys and consumes by themselves benefits and services over which the owner has full control of their use example an ipod principal agent problem when principals don t can t monitor their agents 100 of the time so agents don t always act in the principal s best interests another way to solve collective action problems is delegation assigns authority to make and implement decisions to some smaller number of persons who act on behalf of the larger group problem hard to monitor principal an individual with the authority to make some decision this authority may be delegated to an agent who is supposed to act on the