William Harrison Riker (September 22, 1920 – June 26, 1993) was an American

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

who is prominent for applying

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

to political science. He helped to establish

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

as a center of behavioral revolution in political science.

Early life

William Harrison Riker was born on September 22, 1920, in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

. He had 4 children, 2 sons and 2 daughters with wife Mary Elizabeth. He earned his bachelor's degree in economics at Indiana's

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the G ...

in 1942 and received his Ph.D at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1948. While a student at DePauw, he was initiated into the

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen ...

fraternity. Before his Ph.D, Riker worked at the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

(then Radio Corporation of America), where he worked as a time-and-motion analyst.

Career

Riker took on a professorship at

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducation ...

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...

(then Lawrence College), where he published ''

The Theory of Political Coalitions ''The Theory of Political Coalitions'' is an academic book on positive political theory written by the American political scientist William H. Riker and published in 1962. It uses game theory to formalize political theory. In it, Riker deduces the ...

'' (1962). In 1962, he became the chair of the Political Science Department at the

, where he remained chair until 1977, and remained active until his death. Riker was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1974. Riker founded the now-mainstream field of

positive political theory Positive political theory (PPT) or explanatory political theory is the study of politics using formal methods such as social choice theory, game theory, and statistical analysis. In particular, social choice theoretic methods are often used to d ...

, which introduced

and the axiomatic method of

social choice theory Social choice theory or social choice is a theoretical framework for analysis of combining individual opinions, preferences, interests, or welfares to reach a ''collective decision'' or ''social welfare'' in some sense.Amartya Sen (2008). "Soci ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (; born November 24, 1946) is a political scientist, professor at New York University, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Biography Bueno de Mesquita graduated from Stuyvesant High School in ...

and

Kenneth Shepsle Kenneth Shepsle (born September 10, 1945) is an American political scientist who is influential for rational choice scholarship. He is George D. Markham professor of government at Harvard University, and a research associate at the Institute for ...

in their memoir write that "These have proved crucial to predictive tests for political theory." Riker is also often credited with being the founder of

rational choice theory Rational choice theory refers to a set of guidelines that help understand economic and social behaviour. The theory originated in the eighteenth century and can be traced back to political economist and philosopher, Adam Smith. The theory postula ...

with his work on applying economic theory to mathematical models of politics. Among other contributions, Riker is known for work on the theory and history of

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...

and on what he called "

heresthetic Heresthetic is an approach to understanding how political actors manipulate the decision-making process so they can win. Heresthetic is a positive political theory, including aspects of game theory, public choice theory, rational choice theory, ...

"—the art of changing political outcomes without changing peoples' underlying preferences by manipulating the decision-making process, for example by changing the order in which decisions are made. In his book ''Liberalism Against Populism'', he argued that the instability of majority rule, demonstrated in

Arrow's impossibility theorem Arrow's impossibility theorem, the general possibility theorem or Arrow's paradox is an impossibility theorem in social choice theory that states that when voters have three or more distinct alternatives (options), no ranked voting electoral syste ...

and the

McKelvey–Schofield chaos theorem The McKelvey–Schofield chaos theorem is a result in social choice theory. It states that if preferences are defined over a multidimensional policy space, then majority rule is in general unstable: there is no Condorcet winner. Furthermore, any poi ...

, meant that "populist" interpretations of democracy as implementing a collective will of the people were untenable. Instead, democratic leaders aimed to build disparate coalitions; a piece of successful coalition-building could cause realigning elections, in which blocs of voters swiftly changed their allegiance. Concerning political coalition for the benefit of minorities, Riker argued that the larger the coalition, the shorter-lived it is.

Eamonn Butler Eamonn Butler (born 1953) is a British economist. He is the co-founder and Director of the Adam Smith Institute. Early life Eamonn Butler was born in 1953. His brother is Stuart Butler.Michael David Kandiah, Anthony Seldon, ''Ideas and Think Ta ...

, ''Public Choice: A Primer'', London:

Institute of Economic Affairs The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a right-wing pressure group and think tank registered as a UK charity Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute", and says that it seeks to "further t ...

, 2012, p. 63 In his book The Theory of Political Coalitions (1962), Riker argued that in situations where there is conflict over finite resources, actors will seek to create coalitions that are large enough to ensure that they get access to the resources, but that the coalitions will not be larger than that (because the actors will not want to dilute the resources more than they have to). The William H. Riker Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching is awarded by the University of Rochester bi-annually in his honor. The Political Economy section of the American Political Science Association awards an annual book prize in his name as well.

Publications

*Riker, William H. ''Soldiers of the States: The Role of the National Guard in American Democracy''. Washington:

Public Affairs Press Public Affairs Press ( – mid-1980s) was a book publisher in Washington, D.C., owned and often edited by Morris Bartel Schnapper (1912–1999). History According to notional successor Peter Osnos of the 1997-founded PublicAffairs: For f ...

, 1957. *____. “The Paradox of Voting and Congressional Rules for Voting on. Amendments.” ''American Political Science Review''. ''52'', 1958: 349–366. *____. ''

''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962. *____. "Federalism: Origin, Operation, Significance". Boston: Little, Brown, 1964. *____. "Towards a Positive Political Theory", Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973. *____. "Implications from the Disequilibrium of Majority Rule for the Study of Institutions," ''American Political Science Review'', ''74'', 1980: 432–446. *____. ''Liberalism Against Populism''. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1982. *____. "The Heresthetics of Constitution-Making: The Presidency in 1787, with Comments on Determinism and Rational Choice." ''American Political Science Review'', ''78'', 1984: 1–16. *____. ''The Art of Political Manipulation''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. *____. ''The Strategy of Rhetoric''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Notes

External links

NAS memoir of William H. Riker
with discussion of his contributions

an exposition of Riker's concept for structuring the world so
William H Riker Prize
administered by the University of Rochester, Department of Political Science {{DEFAULTSORT:Riker, William H. 1920 births 1993 deaths American political scientists American political philosophers Voting theorists DePauw University alumni Lawrence University faculty Harvard University alumni University of Rochester faculty People from Des Moines, Iowa Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Shortridge High School alumni 20th-century political scientists

Early life

Career

Publications

See also

Notes

External links