PSC 116 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Groupthink, Bounded Rationality
Document Summary
Most foreign policy is designed and implemented by bureaucracies: gather info to make policies, implement and monitor policies, all countries have similar set of bureaucracies in executive branch, state, defense, national security agency(nasa), intelligence. More incentive to fight for own interests rather than search for. Rational" policy: political needs > foreign policy needs. Bureaucracies have different interests because of mission(role) and budget: example: rivalry" between army, navy air force and marines. Policies that result from bureaucratic politics are often unintended. Key decisions are made by leaders and closest advisors: problems inherent to small group decision making can lead to irrational decisions. Most of the critical decisions are made by single decision maker: psychology and personality matter. Individuals deal with ambiguity and uncertainty in different ways: leaders differ in reactions to same situations, subject to differ information screens: subconscious filters through which people put the info coming in about the world around them.