Strategy and Politics

Emerson M.S. Niou is Professor of Political Science at Duke University. He is the co-author of The Balance of Power (Cambridge University Press) and his current projects include studies of institutions and governance, theories of voting, and politics of alliance formation.Peter C. Ordeshook is Professor of Political Science at California Institute of Technology. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has taught at the University of Rochester, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Texas, and the California Institute of Technology. He is the author, editor, or coauthor of a dozen books and over a hundred academic essays on formal political theory and constitutional design.

• 1. Politics as a Game. 2. Extensive Forms, Voting Trees and Planning Ahead 3. The Strategic Form and Nash Equilibria. 4. Zero Sum and Spatial Games. 5. The Prisoners’ Dilemma and Collective Action. 6. Agendas and Voting Rules. 7. Games With Incomplete Information. 8. Cooperation and Coalitions.

"The strength of Strategy and Politics is its amazing ability to cover the essential aspects of game theory while keeping the reader constantly in touch with why political science as a whole would benefit from considering this method." — Arthur Lupia, Hal R. Varian Collegiate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan