POLI 358 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Evolutionary Game Theory, Game Theory, Utility

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 358
• Professor: Leonardo Baccini

Document Summary

Legend: normal text- from slides; italics: what the professor said in class, over and above the slides problem of cooperation. New institutional economy: cooperation increases information, reduce the transaction costs, this is about minimizing the cost. People are selfish- realist point of view- care about maximizing their own personal utility function. If there is no central authority, life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short (hobbes 1651) Solution: establishing governments, which provide the central authority. If there are no formal institutions, individuals will not cooperate and there will be conflict- countries are the same way as individuals in the theory. When governments are established, cooperation among citizens becomes possible: government- formal institution get cooperation. Countries are selfish- want to maximize own gains vis a vis others: no central government in the international relations. Anarchy rules: because anarchy is so prominent in international relations, there is a risk that the most powerful countries will win.