Positive political theory (PPT), explanatory political theory, or formal theory is the study of

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

using formal methods such as

social choice theory Social choice theory is a branch of welfare economics that extends the Decision theory, theory of rational choice to collective decision-making. Social choice studies the behavior of different mathematical procedures (social welfare function, soc ...

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

, and

statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying probability distribution.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of ...

. In particular, social choice theoretic methods are often used to describe and (axiomatically) analyze the performance of rules or institutions. The outcomes of the rules or institutions described are then analyzed by game theory, where the individuals/parties/nations involved in a given interaction are modeled as ''rational'' agents playing a game, guided by self-interest. Based on this assumption, the outcome of the interactions can be predicted as an equilibrium of the game. The founder of the field was

William H. Riker William Harrison Riker (September 22, 1920 – June 26, 1993) was an American political scientist known for applying game theory and mathematics to political science. He helped establish University of Rochester as a center of the behavioral revo ...

. In his book ''

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), he applied the principles of

to the study of politics. The original creation of PPT was developed while Riker was the leader of Rochester School of Political Science, generating the Rochester School

movement Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...

. Positive political theory has been used to study democratic institutions such as

political bargaining Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

. PPT allows researchers to determine how outcomes of political bargaining differ based on whether political actors are equals or if power is unevenly distributed. PPT also permits the identification of institutional and contextual mechanisms that give some group members additional influence in determining collective outcomes. By focusing on the mechanisms, PPT also allows researchers to determine if outcomes are a result of asymmetric bargaining or deliberative persuasion.

References

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External links

Google scholar article list

The origins of positive political theory

with discussion of his contributions Subfields of political science Administrative theory {{polisci-stub

See also

References

External links