Book review: Goal-Based Decision Making: An Interpersonal Model by Stephen Slade (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)

Abstract

This is a mesmerizing book, containing many interesting and provocative ideas about decision making as a general process as well as decision making in both a private and a public group context. Specifically, it concerns the decision making process of individual members of Congress in the United States House of Representatives as they decide to vote for or against a particular piece of legislation. Members of Congress must make their decisions subject to conflicting pressures from constituents, lobbyists, other Washington, D. C. actors (e.g., how will the Supreme Court view the constitutionality of this legislation? what does the President of the United States want done? what actions will Senators from my state take?), all under intense media scrutiny while needing to explain, to influence, to justify, and to seek re-election. While Slade's book does not (necessarily!) treat all facets of the problem, he has made a valuable first step in explicating the process used.