POLS 320 Study Guide - Game Theory, David Candy
13 Dec 2012
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Document Summary
According to 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 way of answering this hypothetical question is by applying game. Game theory is a way of modelling and predicting how human beings will interact given specific circumstances and assumptions. It makes the assumption that people are rational. It makes the further assumption that they would benefit more from cooperation than non-cooperation. It makes a final assumption that cheating on an agreement will produce greater individual benefits than cooperating: provided that other parties still uphold their end of the agreement. Prisoners dilemma asks the question of what is the most likely outcome, given these assumptions, in an environment where there is no authority in place to enforce the rules.
