POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Game Theory
23 Dec 2014
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According to one textbook (dickerson and flanagan), government has to do with compulsion, not voluntary decision making. Government is a specialized activity of those individuals that make and enforce public decisions that are binding upon the whole community (p4) . One (possible) way of answering this question is by applying game. Game theory is a way of modelling and predicting how human beings will interact given specific circumstances and assumptions. Prisoners dilemma (one type of game scenario) asks the question of what is the most likely outcome (given specific assumptions about individual rationality: in an environment where there is no authority in place to enforce agreements. The result: people behaving rationally on an individual level can generate outcomes that are irrational. One way out of the prisoners dilemma is for some authority that can enforce agreements and punish those who cheat. Government performs this function (according to the theory)
