Decision-Making in Committees (eBook)

Acknowledgments 5
Contents 6
Introduction 8
1 Games and Political Decisions 19
1.1 Basic Concepts 20
1.1.1 The Characteristic Function 21
1.1.2 Simple Games 24
1.1.3 Spatial Analysis 30
1.2 Voting Rules and Power 34
1.2.1 Power Indices 34
1.2.2 Bargaining Power 43
1.2.3 Power Measurement and Spatial Voting 47
1.3 Voting Rules and Payoffs 53
2 Committees as Representative Institutions 59
2.1 Criteria for Representative Committees 60
2.2 The Model 64
2.3 Analytic Arguments 68
2.4 Simulation Results 73
2.4.1 Randomly Generated Configurations 75
2.4.2 EU Council of Ministers 79
2.4.3 US Electoral College 82
2.5 Discussion 83
3 Robust Equal Representation 86
3.1 Simple and Sophisticated Square Root Rules 87
3.2 Quota Variation 91
3.2.1 The `Optimal' Quota 91
3.2.2 Supermajorities and Representation 93
3.2.2.1 Randomly Generated Configurations 94
3.2.2.2 EU Council of Ministers 97
3.3 Heterogeneity Across Constituencies 98
3.4 Discussion 107
4 Committees and Lobby Coalition Formation 111
4.1 Motivation 112
4.2 The Model 115
4.2.1 The Legislature 115
4.2.2 The Lobbyists' Game 117
4.3 Analysis of the Model 119
4.3.1 Legislative Decision-Making Without Lobbyists 119
4.3.2 Lobbyists' Contributions 120
4.3.3 Cartel Formation and Small Status Quo Bias 121
4.3.4 Cartel Formation and Large Status Quo Bias 124
4.4 Discussion 129
References 134