Looking for a «genuine Science of Politics». William H. Riker and the Game Theoretical Turn in Political Science
Date:
This is a working paper I presented at the 48th annual meeting of the History of Economics Society in December 2021 (Online).
Abstract
The paper, which is part of my Ph.D. dissertation, aims at offering a historical reconstruction of the early cross-fertilization between economics and political science in the 1950s. In particular, I want to show how the formal revolution in economics has influenced the developments of Rational Choice and Game Theory in Political Science. I will begin with a concise summary of the disciplinary state of Political Science, focusing mainly on methodological debates (i.e., what the term “science” meant in Political Science). Later I will focus my attention on some pivotal theoretical contributions regarding the economic approach to politics (e.g., Duncan Black’s and Kenneth Arrow’s) and some advancements in Cooperative Game Theory (e.g., Shapley’s and Shubik’s works). Finally, I will highlight William H. Riker’s crucial role in this process through an analysis of his early formal theoretical papers and their relation with contemporary formal analysis in economics.