Do you like getting your own way, making money, cheating your friends, reneging on your promises? Then try your hand as a politician in Michael Lavers series of entertaining games in Playing Politics. From games such as Agenda and Coalitions to three-sided soccer, you can fight elections, overthrow governments, and make deals, all in the interests of winning or holding onto power.

In both the world of politics and the world of games, outcomes are decided by calculated interactions between the players as they balance team tactics against self-interest, weigh up the risks, or use their bargaining power. A fun, lively, and accessible introduction to complex political concepts, Playing Politics is the only book available which uses games to teach politics. Throughout, Laver provides detailed commentary and analysis of how games and game theory relate to real political life.

Whether you are securing public funding to support a project or coming out on top in the opinion polls, the means by which you can win may be fair or foul. Anyone can have fun with these games, and by playing politics, get a feel for the fascinating complexity of the real thing.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 168) and index.

About the Author -

Michael Laver is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Trinity College, Dublin. His previous publications include Invitation to Politics, Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Government, and Making and Breaking Governments: Government Formation in Parliamentary Democracies.

Preface

Introduction

The fundamental laws of nature

Primitive games: the rules

Playing primitive games

Real primitive games

Party games: the rules

Playing party games

Real party games

Agenda

Coalition soccer

Coalition poker

Killer (coalition darts)

So what?