BIOM 121 2nd Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 12 Lecture 1 August 12 Syllabus Lecture 2 August 14 Principal Assumption is the basis that every political actor is rational and they always have more than once choice but they always choose their preference Their choices usually tend to reflect their values and what they stand for or want Success at politics requires bargaining and compromise When politicians conflict over different choices it usually is because of conflicting interest conflicting values conflicting beliefs and or conflicting ideas about how to allocate limited resources Politics is how people attempt to manage conflict There are processes through which individuals and groups reach agreements on a course of common or collective action When politics fail there is anarchy and war Bargaining and Compromise is required The politicians know what they want but they must make sacrifices to reconcile if they are to agree to some common course of action The fundamental problem of government is that the Government is devised to represent and reconcile society s many diverse preferences that are sown in the nature of man Madison In the absence of effective political institutions they spiraled into a trap of mutual suspicion fear and hostility Political Institutions that are effective have a set of rules and procedures for reaching enforced collective agreements unstructured negotiation rarely yields a collective decision that everyone can accept Institutional designs is a product of politics If we look forward to the future the Constitution is a product of political compromise Constitutions are created to establish a nations governing institutions a set of rules and procedures that these institutions must and must not follow to reach and enforce collective agreements sometimes it is a highly formal document or it may be an informal understanding based on centuries of precedent and law Institutions are stable and resist change due to the fact that they last longer than the occupier The institutions are embedded with certain core values such as popular rule and are balanced with equally fundamental rules that must protect certain individual liberties The government consists of those institutions and the legally prescribed process for making and enforcing collective agreements Government also assumes various forms monarchy republic democracy theocracy or dictatorship In every instance of collective action either nations particularly democracies will face challenges whether they are comparing preferences or agreeing on a course of action Lecture 3 August 16 Prisoner s Dilemma Is when two people must decide whether to corroborate with each other Coordination Dilemma Is when two people are faced with a decision and they decide that if they do something together they will both be better off In this dilemma corroboration does make since to both parties involved Lecture 4 August 19 In government when groups of people get together to solve a solution there will be numerous issues If you can t solve the problems than you have no coordination to solve the problem you either use Prisoner s dilemma or coordination dilemma Prisoner s dilemma is always present in a collective action and can bring action to a halt It also arises whenever individuals who ultimately would benefit from cooperating with each other also have powerful and irresistible incentive to break the agreement and exploit the other side Prisoner s dilemma only works if both sides are positive the other side will hold their agreement When it comes to government they must create institutions to enforce that the agreement is held up The Free Rider problem is another form of the prisoner s dilemma that afflicts large groups If there are so many people in the agreement that each person only performs a small part it will cause some people to just free ride and to not hold up their part because it isn t that big To solve the free rider problem you can offer private inducements to contribute to the collective action or the government can enact laws that force people to participate in the collective action Tragedy of the Commons is the same as the free rider problem except it is when there is a shortage of the good In that case the government must pass laws to ensure obedience punish the cheaters and provide incentive for following the laws When there is collective action there must be an institution to enforce the agreements That institution must find a balance between transaction costs and conformity costs Institutions are run through one of the following things Command through agenda control or majority rule Lecture 5 August 21 Delegation brings agency loss which is what you would usually do and what your agent usually does There are a few ways to minimize agency loss such as screening selecting monitoring and punishment When the U S Constitution was created it was in a bind it needed the government to address collective action but at the same time not risk agency loss By trying to solve both of those problems it created an imperfect solution The colonies each had their own government starting out but those people in charge did not have any experience with colony relations After the seven year way Britain needed more money so they started to tax the colonies and they interfered with how the colonies were being run The stamp act imposed taxes on all printed material which led to the Boston Tea Party Since the colonies did not have that much experience they were unorganized but it still stood up to Britain and it set up a Committee of Observation which helped colony interrelations Thomas Paine s Common Sense said Only in the creation of an independent republic would the people find contentment The second Continental Congress created the Articles of Confederation The national government was given limited authority from the states The major laws required 9 of the 13 states to agree Congress was authorized to requisition money from the men and the states borrow money and issue bills of credit fix uniform standards of weight and measurement adjudicate disputes between states upon state petition tax and other fundamental changes unanimous consent great idea on paper not so much in practice Congress could not compel states to meet military quotas collect taxes directly from the people compel states to pay their share of government costs and regulate interstate and foreign commerce Things started going downhill too many issues Lecture