1. Introduction to American Government POLS 1101
Prof. Ryan Bakker
Fall 2015

3. Class Resources Lecture! Class website Discussion Section Leaders
Online resources
CNN, Drudge Report, Five Thirty Eight, Political Wire, Politics1, The Monkey Cage, Vox, The Upshot

4. Why are you here? Let’s make a deal…
Will you take a one question test?
With VERY high stakes??

5. Who is this person?

6. Who is this person?

7. Who is this person?

8. 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…

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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 government’s power of any kind
Discussion:
Students should be able to quickly identify where the United States falls within these forms of government but it is useful to get them to try to categorize other contemporary or historical examples of governments. Some useful examples for discussion might include North Korea, Nazi Germany, Feudal Europe, Ancient Athens, and contemporary Iran.

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. Constitutions and Govt’s
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…

16. Constitutions and Govt’s
Authority: The acknowledged right to make a particular decision
Power: the actual influence with other officeholders

17. 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
It’s hard to agree on alternatives.

18. 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
Prisoner’s Dilemma:
Free riding, tragedy of the commons
Make reneging and defection expensive
Create institutions to enforce agreements

19. A Collective Dilemma

20. 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 group’s effort
Becomes a problem as individuals recognize that their small contribution will not make a difference.

21. How to Solve Free Riding
Private inducements to participate with the group efforts
Membership benefits
Coercion
Use law to force participation
Provide tax breaks

22. 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.

23. Tragedy of the Commons
The trick to avoiding the dilemma lies in institutional design
Link the individual’s personal interest to the provision of the public good.
Solutions:
Force/regulation
Privatization

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. Conformity Costs
Conformity costs: The difference between what an individual prefers and what the collective body requires.
Paying property taxes
Military deployment
funding gov’t programs you oppose

28. 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.

29. 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

30. Delegation Preferred solution to controlling transaction costs
Principle: individual/group authorized to delegate
Agent: individual/group to whom power is delegated.

31. 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.

32. Representative Gov’t
Representative gov’t: Citizens limit their decisions to the selection of gov’t 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.

33. Representative Gov’t
Republic: voters elect their representatives, but these representatives are constrained in following the majority’s will in the form of constitutional guarantees for minorities and by institutions requiring large majorities for some decisions.
Most of the world’s democracies are parliamentary govt’s where the legislature elects the executive.
The U.S. has a system of separation of powers, which increases transaction costs.

34. 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.

35. The Work of Government
Citizens look to the gov’t to provide public goods.
National defense
Highways
Legal system
Govt’s also work to minimize externalities
Clean air/water