Josep M. Colomer
Introduction
What's Politics?
Why Science?
The Book
Some Things We Know
30 Propositions in Political Science
Part I: Action
1. The Public Good
Public Goods
Source 1.1: Private Goods and Public Goods
Types of Public Goods
Source1.2: The Tragedy of
the Commons
The Politics of Public Goods
2. Collective Action
The Individual Logic
Case 2.1: Benefits and Costs of Voting
Sources 2.1: The Individual Logic of Collective Action
The Size of the Group
Sources 2.2: Small Groups Get Better Organized
3. Cooperation and
Conflict
The Prisoner's Dilemma
Case 3.1: Prisoner's Dilemma in the Opera
Sources 3.1: Theory of Games
The Evolution of Cooperation
Other Games of Collective Action
Sources 3.2: Chickens and Stags
4. Leadership
What is a Leader?
Cases 4.1: Some Top
Leaders
Sources 4.1: Effective Leadership
Leaders and Followers
Institutions For Leadership
Part II: Polity
5. Community
Multilevel Governance
Case 5.1: Local Self-Government in Renaissance Italy
Sources 5.1: Small is Democratic
Sovereignty
Sources 5.2:
National and Multinational States
City, State, Empire
6. Federation
The Size of the Community
Union
Case 6.1: Consensual Switzerland
Case 6.2: The Soviet Disunion
Sources 6.1: Self-government and Union
7. Dictatorship
Forms of Dictatorship
Cases 7.1: The
Dictator's Succession
Sources 7.1: Authoritarian and Totalitarian Dictatorships
The Fall of Dictatorships
Case 7.2: Must Islam Be Associated with Dictatorship?
8. Democracy
What's Democracy?
Sources 8.1: Civic Culture
Democracy and Development
Cases 8.1: Democratic
India, Dictatorial China
Sources 8.2: Socio-economic Correlations with Political
Democratic peace
Part III: Election
9. Political Parties
Why Parties?
Types of Parties
Case 9.1: How the UK's Labour Choose Candidates
Source 9.1: The Political Oligarchy
10.
Electoral Competition
The Voters
Sources 10.1: Elections as Markets
Convergence on the Median Voter
Sources 10.2: The Median Voter Maximizes Social Utility
The Incumbent's Advantage
11. Agenda Formation
Multiple Issues
Case 11.1: Electoral Competition in the United
States
Sources 11.1: Multidimensional Instability
Setting the Agenda
Cases 11.2: Electoral Issues in TV ads
Sources 11.2: Political Arguments
12. Party Systems
Number of Parties
Ideology
Polarization vs. Consensus
Case 12.1: Swing Political Parties
Source
12.1: Types of Party Systems
Part IV: Government
13. Choosing Presidents
Unanimity
Majority
Case 13.1: Divide and Win in the Black and White
Sources 13.1: The Majority is the Whole
14. Electing Assemblies
Assembly Size
Persons and Parties
Electoral
Representation
Case 14.1: Protective Proportional Representation
Cases 14.2: Single-seat and Multi-seat Ballots
Sources 14.1: The Chicken and the Egg
15. Division of Powers
Assemblies and Presidents
Parliamentary Regime
Case 15.1: Ceremonial Chief of
State
Presidential Regime
Sources 15.1: The Presidentialist Temptation
16. Party Government
Single-Party and Multi-Party Government
Case 16.1: The Importance of Being Not Too Many
Unified and Divided Government
Final Thoughts
Further Reading
Key
Concepts
Political Thinkers
Credits
Index
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Joseph M. Colomer is currently a Research Professor at the Higher Council of Scientific Research; an affiliated professor at the Barcelona-Graduate School of Economics, Pompeu Fabra University, in Barcelona, and Professor of Politics at the University of Bristol. He was a Fulbright scholar at
the University of Chicago, and has been a full-time visiting professor at New York University and Georgetown University. Colomer is also a life member of the American Political Science Association.
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