Applications to Political Science

Abstract

This chapter considers a set of closely related binary-choice games that have been applied to model questions in political science. It starts with an analysis of “participation games,” which are n-player games where each player has only two possible actions: to participate or not. The payoff for either decision depends on the number of other players who make that decision. In some cases, a threshold level of participation is required for the group benefit to be obtained. The first example is the “volunteer's dilemma,” which pertains to the special case where the threshold is 1, that is, only a single volunteer is needed. The chapter ends with an analysis of bargaining situations, including an application of agent quantal response equilibrium to bilateral “crisis bargaining” and of Markov QRE to the Baron–Ferejohn model of multilateral “legislative bargaining.”