PSCI 3123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Group Decision-Making, Homo Economicus
25 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Everyone acts the same given the same preferences and rules of the game. Rational choice in regards to war is more of an approach to decision making rather than an explanation of why states fight: the goal is to be predictive rather than explain any particular war. There is an information problem between actors. There is no world government to enforce treaties and agreements between countries. There is nothing to keep the stronger state from overtaking the weaker state. Answers why war related bargaining fails and peace deals are either not reached, or fail as well. If rationality and bargaining worked, we would never see war. Says that we cannot trust that the other side will keep their word, so we become defensive. We don"t know everything and that scares us. We don"t know what resources the other side has, and we do not know how skilled the other side is. Wars can only resolve themselves by being fought.
