Paradoxes in Politics a Book in Review

A detailed Summary of Paradoxes in Politics a Book in Review

The book, which was chosen for this review, is Paradoxes in Politics written by Steven J. Brams. The book Paradox and Politics is an introduction to the nonobvious in political science. When speaking about the book Paradoxes in Politics, John A. Ferejohn, an associate professor of political science at the California Institute of Technology said,

"... a first-rate piece of work... And insightful introduction to a mathematical reasoning in politics... the book reads well, is provocative and constitutes a convincing case for the use of mathematical models and thinking about a wide range of political issues." Published by The Free Press, a division of the Macmillan Publishing Co. in New York City. The book was first copyrighted in 1976.

Steven J. Brams also known for his other 15 books including Game Theory and Politics. Dr. Brams is also the publisher of over one hundred other papers on the subject of politics the first of which was published in 1966. Steven J. Brams was born in Concord New Hampshire in 1940. Steven received his bachelor's degree in Politics Economics and Science in 1962 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after which he received his Ph.D. in Political Science 1966 at Northwestern. Dr. Brams no

The conclusion drawn in the to the Election Paradox chapter deals with actually two paradoxes one which is called the ambiguity paradox which poses the question of whether ambiguous strategies that may be rational for candidates in an election are also rational for voters who must choose among the candidates. The second paradox described in this chapter was the reaction paradox, which asked whether the public reaction to a private prediction necessarily renders it incapable of being adjusted-with the public correction taking account of-so that a correct public prediction can be made. This conclusion states the voters can not make intelligent choices among candidates when they askew their positions on issues. One would find himself in agreement with this conclusion, how could anyone intelligently decide on a candidate without knowing his platform.

Paradox and Politics is divided into eight chapters the first being the Paradox of Second Best, followed by Paradox of Voting, Election Paradoxes, Paradox of Cooperation, Paradox of Inducement, the Alabama Paradox, Three Paradoxes of Power and concluding with a Paradox of Prediction. These eight chapters examine several significant problems in political science whose commonly accepted answers are often contradicted by a more careful investigation. The Author relates paradoxes to actual cases and data, from voting in committees to arms races in international relations. Brams demonstrates the value of, and need for, both theoretical analysis and validation. In his book he also states that the exposition of these paradoxes is nontechnical, he further states that only knowledge of high school mathematics is needed.

obvious conclusion could be drawn that candidate number two will undoubtfully sling back. Any action requires an equal and opposite reaction. Just about every voter is sure to have seen or experienced the Paradox of Inducement in one form or another.

example of mudslinging; when one candidate slings mud at another candidate an

In a book about paradoxes it is perhaps both instructive and appropriate for the author to conclude with a recently invented paradox that is not, strictly speaking, a paradox of politics, the Paradox of Prediction. The author poses a problem, he says " Imagine the following situation. There are two boxes, B1 and B2. B1 contains a $1,000; B2 contains either $1 million or nothing, but you do not know which. You have a choice between two possible actions: one, take what is in both boxes, or two, take only what is in B2. Now what is in B2 depends on what action some superior being predicted you would take beforehand. If he

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Approximate Word count = 1960
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics