Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions

Analyzing Politics makes the fundamentals of rational-choice theory accessible to undergraduates in clear, nontechnical language.

Through case studies, illustrations, and examples, the author provides students with the means to analyze a wide variety of situations. The Second Edition has been thoroughly revised to include updated cases and examples, new problem sets and discussion questions, and new “Experimental Corner” sections at the end of many chapters, describing experiments from social science literature.

Kenneth A. Shepsle is the George D. Markham Professor of Government and founding member of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic Instability, The Giant Jigsaw Puzzle: Democratic Committee Assignments in the Modern House, Models of Multiparty Electoral Competition, Making and Breaking Governments, and Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1990, and he is the recipient of fellowships by the Hoover Institution, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Shepsle’s research focuses on formal political theory, congressional politics, public policy, and political economy.