Political Bargaining: Theory, Practice and Process

Political Bargaining introduces a process at the heart of all political and economic exchanges in contemporary society, and the very essence of politics itself, to provide a new framework and fresh insights for modern political science.

Gideon Doron and Itai Sened trace the prevalence of bargaining processes in politics from the abstract level of individual human interaction and the 'state of nature' to the more concrete political or institutionalized level.

They introduce students to theory — the basic models of social choice and game theory, rational choice theory and positivist approaches; practice — the practical manifestations of political bargaining in everyday national and international political life; and process — its setting, the interests of the players involved, the conditions and properties that affect their calculations and, consequently, their ability to obtain desired outcomes.

Political Bargaining will serve to provide students with the basic tools for learning about and participating in politics today by richly illustrating how the authoritative allocation of scarce resources is arrived at through a complex bargaining process between competing interests in society. It will be essential reading for student and lecturer alike across political science and the social sciences more widely.

Author//Editor Description:

Gideon Doron is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University.

Itai Sened is Associate Professor at Washington University in St Louis and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University.