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GVPT 221 - FALL 2009 INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL THEORIES OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOR AND POLITICS Instructor: Professor Piotr Swistak, TYD 1140 G, tel. 405-4149 email: [email protected]. Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays: 1:00pm-2:00pm in TYD 1140 G. If this time is not good for you, send me an email and we will arrange some other time to meet. Lectures: SQH 1117, Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00pm – 3:15pm. Teaching Assistants: Henry Jin and Max Nehl will be our TAs. Henry will be available for help on Thursdays 2:00pm—3:00pm in MMH 3418; Max will be available on Wednesdays 12:00pm—1:00pm in TLF 1101. They will start their help hours the week of Sept 14.. Their email addresses are: [email protected] and [email protected] . A message from the Honors Council: The Student Honor Council encourages any individuals teaching a course Fall semester to include the following information in the course syllabus: The University of Maryland, College Park has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit www.shc.umd.edu. To further exhibit your commitment to academic integrity, remember to sign the Honor Pledge on all examinations and assignments: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (assignment)." If you look up ANY major journals in political science (e.g., the American Political Science Review) you will see that a good part of the modern political science looks more like physics and other ―hard‖ sciences than a traditional social science. This is the new face of the science of politics and the direction in which the discipline is moving rapidly. My objective in this class is (1) to show you the reasons for this transformation, (2) to teach you how formal theories are constructed, and (3) to show you how this mode of research can be applied to solve a number of important problems of politics and society. The list of topics below will give you an idea about the scope and the content. READINGS All readings will be placed on ELMS. Materials for this class (e.g., syllabus, readings, lecture notes, sample test questions) will be posted on https://elms.umd.edu2 WARNING This is not a typical social science class. Much of the material is deductive and mathematicalstudents who do not like this type of reasoning may find it agonizing. GRADING MANDATORY GRADING TESTS (40%): There will be four mandatory tests. All tests are closed book. For each test there will be an optional make-up that will allow you to improve your grade. A make-up will have a form of a conversation with me in which you will explain the nature of your mistakes on the test and answer any questions I may have about the related material; I have to be convinced that you understand the concepts and are able to use them. ―Make-ups‖ will count as 50% of your test grade. (Assume, for example, that your score on Test 1 was 70% and you want to improve it by taking a make-up. Suppose that your score on the make-up test is 100%. In that case your total score for Test 1 will be determined as: 0.5*70% + 0.5*100% = 85%.) The average of the four test grades will count as 40% of your class grade. HOMEWORKS (40%): There will be several homework assignments I will ask you to turn in. The average of your homework grades (all homeworks carry the same weight) will count as 40% of your class grade. PARTICIPATION (20%): Your attendance, expressed as percentage of classes you have attended, will My philosophy of fair gradingEffortComprehensionMix of Effort and ComprehensionTESTS ATTENDANCE HOMEWORKS3 count 20%. EXTRA CREDIT There are two additional ways to improve your grade: CLASS PERFORMANCE: Occasionally we will have individual/group ―competitions‖ in class. They will count as follows: All extra credits you have accumulated, if any, will be classified into three categories: top, middle and low. Students in the top category will get an extra 3%, middle 2% and low 1%. FINAL EXAM (Thursday, December 17, 1:30pm–3:30pm in our regular classroom): An optional way to improve your grade is by taking the final exam. Final exam will count for 50% of your test grade. For example, suppose that you take four tests and your average test score is 86%. In that case if you decide not to take the final exam, your class grade will be calculated with the 86% test average counting as 40% of your class grade. If, however, you take the final and score 94% on it, your class grade will be calculated with 0.5*86% + 0.5*94% = 90% counting as 40% of your class grade. MISCELLANEOUS SPECIAL PROBLEMS AND SITUATIONS If you have any problems, e.g., medical, that can affect your performance in class you should let me know immediately. We may be able to resolve the problem if you come and tell me about it in advance. MISSING A TEST will not be allowed except for extraordinary circumstances like medical emergencies, jury duty, etc, for which I will ask you to supply relevant documents (from the physician, court, etc). You have to inform me about such emergencies immediately and no later than a week after the missed test. If you neglect to document your absence within a week, I will assign zero points to a missed test; there will be no appeals. LECTURES VERSUS READINGS: A good part of the material will not be contained in the readings and will only be presented in class. Most of the readings are not a substitute for what we do in class—they are supplementary. Attending classes, for all I know from past generations, seems necessary to do well in this course. Please don’t use NOTEBOOKS in class. Readings on ELMS come from the following sources: Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, 2006 (1st ed. 1984.) Avinash Dixit and Susan Skeat, Games of Strategy, Norton, New York, 2004. Reid Hastie and Robyn M. Dawes, Rational Choice in an Uncertain World, Sage Publications, 2001. David Kreps, Notes on the Theory of Choice, Westview Press, 1988. William Riker,


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UMD GVPT 221 - Syllabus

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