POLI 227 Lecture Notes - Collective Behavior, Tactical Voting, Path Dependence
Document Summary
Institutions enable and constrain actions by affecting strategic calculations of actors and relect/sustain norms (i. e. electoral system in canada encourages strategic voting) Critical junctions as the points when institutions come together (i. e. tunisia is now in the process of writing a constitution) Politics can be analyzed through the lens of rational, utility-maximizing people. Collective behaviour is a function of many micro devisions. Would have trouble explaining the emergence of protest. May or may not involve formal modelling. Problem is that it has trouble assessing the rationality in terms of non-material factors, and has an operational problem with defining rationality. Politics is shaped by deeply held cultural views concerning group identities, legitimacy, and pluralism. Problem is that cultural attitudes and beliefs change, they are not static (i. e. quebec pre- quiet revolution was massively religious, impoverished and conservative, now is the most secular and progressive on many issues) 1492, columbus sailed to americas, marks beginning of an era of european expansion.