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Game Theory & Study
Playing Politics: The Nightmare Continues by Michael Laver β€” book cover

Playing Politics: The Nightmare Continues

by Michael Laver
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Overview

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.

About the Author, Michael Laver

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.

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Editorials

Library Journal

This short, assessible work is for anyone interested in understanding the basic laws or dynamics of politics by engaging in safe (risk-free) political activity (as opposed to real-world politics). The author (political science, Trinity Coll., Dublin) has assembled a collection of games he created over 20 years of teaching. Field-tested with students in five different countries, the games move the players from basic political quandaries (individual survival in a competitive environment) to more sophisticated ones (committee policy-making) to team-oriented activities based on traditional games like soccer that mimic the conflicts and motivations of nation-states. The author supplies the rules, suggests the materials needed (dice, cards, money, etc.), and offers words of encouragement, but the fun and learning are left to the players. Not simply to be read, these games work must be played to be appreciated, and anyone can play. Recommended for all public libraries.Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Pa.

Book Details

Published
September 4, 1997
Publisher
Oxford Paperbacks
Pages
182
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780192853219

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