Time Schedule:
Bryan D. Jones
POL S 473
Seattle Campus
Process of decision-making in politics at elite and mass levels, comparison of approaches based on the comprehensive rationality of decision makers with approaches based on limitations on the cognitive capacities of decision makers. Applications to real decision-making situations.
Class description
Description. Are politicians rational? Do voters make decisions based on passions rather than analysis? This course will focus on how political actors make decisions. Our study of political decision-making will be general: we examine both how voters, on the one hand, and how candidates and elected and appointed politicians, on the other, make political decisions. We will trace the consequences for public policy choices that flow from how people make political judgments.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Texts. George Marcus, Russell Newman and Michael Mackuen, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment; Dennis Chong, Rational Lives; Bryan Jones, Reconceiving Decision-making in Democratic Politics
Class assignments and grading
Grading. Papers: 60 % Project/presentation: 20 % Class/quiz participation: 20 % Other: % TOTAL: 100 %
