Introduction to American
Government
POLS 1101
Prof. Ryan Bakker
Fall 2015
Class Resources
Lecture!
Class website
Discussion Section Leaders
Online resources
[Link]
/student-resources
CNN, Drudge Report, Five Thirty
Eight, Political Wire, Politics1,
The Monkey Cage, Vox, The Upshot
Why are you here?
Lets make a deal
Will you take a one question test?
With VERY high stakes??
Who is this person?
Who is this person?
Who is this person?
Making Sense of Government
and Politics
Two fundamental questions about
government and politics:
What do we observe? An empirical question
Why? Requires building a theory around
principles
Two objectives in this introductory chapter:
Explain what we mean by government and
politics
Introduce the collective action problem
What is Government?
The institutions and procedures through
which a land and its people are ruled
Governments may be simple, like a tribal
council that makes all decisions, or they
may be complex, like our own system of
separate branches and levels of
government
Forms of Government:
Inclusiveness
Autocracy A single individual rules
Oligarchy A small group of landowners,
military officers, or wealthy merchants
rules
Democracy A system of rule that
permits citizens to play a significant part
in the governmental process
Forms of Government:
Recognition of Limits
Constitutional Formal and effective limits
are placed on the powers of government
Authoritarian No formal limits are placed
on government but government may be
effectively limited by other social
institutions
Totalitarian No formal or effective limits
on governments power of any kind
The Logic of American
Politics
Politics - the process through which individuals and
groups reach agreement on a course of common, or
collective, action even as they may continue to
disagree on the goals that action in intended to
achieve
Institutions - a set of rules proscribing a process
for reaching and enforcing collective agreements
Constitution - establishes a nations governing
institutions and the set of rules and procedures
these institutions must (and must not) follow to
reach and enforce collective agreements.
Institutional Design
So strong is the this propensity
of mankind to fall into mutual
animosities, that where no
substantial occasion presents
itself, the most frivolous and
fanciful distinctions have been
sufficient to kindle their
unfriendly passions and excite
their most violent conflicts
--James Madison, Fed 10
Institutions Provide Authority
in Four Ways
Jurisdiction The domain over which
decisions may be made
Agenda and Veto Power Gatekeeping
power and the power to say no
Decisiveness Rules for decision making
Delegation Transmission of authority
Constitutions and
Govts
The Constitution sought to
reassure diverse interests they
would be better off under the
proposed system than under the
Articles of Confederation.
Authority versus Power
Constitutions and
Govts
Authority: The
acknowledged
right to make a
particular
decision
Power: the actual
influence with
other
officeholders
Institutional
Durability
Why are institutions so durable?
Authority is generally assigned to
the institution (not people).
Thus, it should exist long after an
office holder retires
People make plans contingent on the
expectation that the institution
will persist
Its hard to agree on alternatives.
Collective Action
Two classes of challenges to efforts for groups to reach
and implement agreements:
Coordination:
Problem increases with group size
Solutions:
Delegation, self-enforcing rules, focal point
Prisoners Dilemma:
Free riding, tragedy of the commons
Solutions:
Make reneging and defection expensive
Create institutions to enforce agreements
A Collective Dilemma
Free Riders
Large groups must address members
temptations to free ride:
To defect from the agreement by
withholding their contribution to the
group while still enjoying the
benefits of the groups effort
Becomes a problem as individuals
recognize that their small
contribution will not make a
difference.
How to Solve Free
Riding
Private inducements to
participate with the group
efforts
Membership benefits
Coercion
Use law to force participation
Provide tax breaks
Tragedy of the Commons
There is a public good that is
in danger of being squandered
unless members cooperate to
preserve it.
The good already exists, but
will be destroyed if
exploitation is not controlled.
Tragedy of the Commons
The trick to avoiding the
dilemma lies in institutional
design
Link the individuals personal
interest to the provision of the
public good.
Solutions:
Force/regulation
Privatization
Collective Action Costs
Collective action offers benefits
that individuals cannot achieve
on their own.
Participation may require costs
The key: design a system that
minimizes costs.
Costs may be material:
Taxes for roads, schools, etc.
Police salaries
Collective Action Costs
Two kinds of costs that are relevant
for designing institutions:
Transaction costs
Conformity costs
Different aspects of how a group
deals with collective action
Often involve trade-offs with one
another
Transaction Costs
Transaction costs: The time,
effort and resources required
to make collective decisions.
More people = higher costs
Sometimes transaction costs are
intentionally included.
Changing the Constitution
Conformity Costs
Conformity
difference
individual
collective
costs: The
between what an
prefers and what the
body requires.
Paying property taxes
Military deployment
funding govt programs you oppose
Transaction vs
Conformity
Often a trade off:
When transaction costs are low,
then decisions are made more
quickly, often leaving more people
unsatisfied.
When conformity costs are low,
then transaction is more costly
Unanimous decisions.
Institutional Design to
Achieve Collective
Action
Two important design principles
Voting rule
Majority Rule: 50% + 1 to make a
decision
Plurality Rule: the most votes wins
Bill Clinton never won a majority of the
popular vote
Delegation: assigns authority to make
decisions to some smaller number of people
who act in the interest of the larger group
Delegation
Preferred solution to
controlling transaction costs
Principle: individual/group
authorized to delegate
Agent: individual/group to whom
power is delegated.
Problems with
Delegation
Agency Loss: The discrepancy
between the principle and the
agent.
Some loss is inevitable
Members of Congress shirking
responsibility
Agents turning against principles
Radical views about the 2nd amendment.
Representative Govt
Representative govt: Citizens limit
their decisions to the selection of
govt officials who, acting as their
agents, deliberate and commit the
citizenry to collective enterprises.
Contrast with direct democracy,
where citizens participate directly
in decision-making.
Representative Govt
Republic: voters elect their representatives,
but these representatives are constrained in
following the majoritys will in the form of
constitutional guarantees for minorities and by
institutions requiring large majorities for some
decisions.
Most of the worlds democracies are
parliamentary govts where the legislature
elects the executive.
The U.S. has a system of separation of powers,
which increases transaction costs.
The Work of Government
Is collective action greater than
private action?
Private goods: things people buy and
consume themselves in a marketplace
that supplies these goods according to
demand
Public good: costs are born
collectively and nobody can be excluded
Externalities: negative public goods.
The Work of Government
Citizens look to the govt to
provide public goods.
National defense
Highways
Legal system
Govts also work to minimize
externalities
Clean air/water