SGIA3831: Are Voters Really Rational? The Political Economy of Political Behaviour and Its Discontents

• Any Level 2 SGIA module

• None

• None

• To familiarise students with the main theoretical political economy models of political behaviour, as well as broader debates about the merits of rational choice models.
• To give students an understanding of the empirical puzzles confronting political economy models of behaviour across different parts of the world, and the suggested explanations provided to make sense of these patterns.
• To improve students ability to critically review the research frontier on political behaviour, especially in relating evidence to theoretical models.
• To provide students the skills to identify and design appropriate research studies to test political economy models of political behaviour and address their limitations.

• The module will analyse the main political economy models across different types of political behaviours, before discussing the limitations of said models, the empirical patterns across these behaviours, and the main alternative explanations presented in the literature. Indicative content may include:
• Economic voting;
• The political effects of globalization and economic development;
• Economic inequality and redistribution;
• Anti-immigration sentiment;
• Political partisanship;
• Government accountability and responsiveness;
• Populism and far-right voting.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• The module will allow students to gain an understanding of:
• The logic behind rational choice models of political economy, as well as more recent alternative behavioural models.
• The major theoretical models and debates for a variety of subject areas in political behaviour.
• The critical assumptions of each theoretical model, and their implications to the theoretical predictions.
• The empirical patterns that exist for and against the different theoretical models of political behaviour across various subject areas.
• The potential methodological approaches available when empirically testing and contrasting different theoretical models.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students will also develop the ability to:
• Effectively describe and critically evaluate major theoretical explanations of political behaviour across various topics and contexts.
• Use empirical evidence to assess the relative explanatory power of different theoretical accounts of political behaviour.
• Apply the logic of rational choice to different social and political phenomena, and to be aware of the potential limitations therein.

Key Skills:

• Furthermore, through the module students will develop key skills, such as:
• Critically evaluating knowledge and evidence.
• Formulating and communicating clear arguments to peers.
• Applying academic theories to understanding real-life outcomes.
• Reviewing articles and providing constructive criticism to other researchers.
• Designing effective empirical research projects.

• Teaching and learning are through a series of 1-hour lectures and 2-hour seminars.
• Lectures will familiarize students with the main theoretical explanations on a given topic, discussing the limitations of political economy models and their competing theories, as well as the empirical evidence available. The lectures will frame the debate for the subsequent seminars.
• Seminars will focus on student-led class discussions around each topic covered in the lectures. Students will read cutting-edge research for each seminar, before critically dismantling each piece theoretically and empirically during the seminar, while discussing ways of improving on existing research.
• Summative assessment consists of two components. The first is a is a 2,000-word critical review of a recent top journal publication to be chosen from a pre-selected list provided by the instructor. The article will provide either a political economy explanation or an alternative explanation to a behavioural phenomena, and the summative will consist of students critically evaluating the argument and evidence presented, as well as discussing ways in which the article could have been improved in particular from a theoretical perspective related to the different assumptions and perspectives discussed in the module. This assessment will account for 40 percent of the final mark. The second is a 3,000-word research design. The task will assess students ability to identify important research questions and to develop a clear empirical plan for how to test said question. Attention should especially be paid to designing a study which might allow for the empirical evaluation of contrasting theoretical perspectives for example, comparing the contrasting predictions of political economy and non-political economy predictions in a particular subject area. The research design should fully sketch out a potential research project, developed right up to the stage before the empirical evidence would typically be obtained and analysed. This assessment will account for 60 percent of the final mark.
• Formative assessment is a 1,000-word preliminary outline of a research design, which allows the students to receive guidance and feedback on their design proposal, from finding the right puzzle, understanding the relevant theoretical predictions, and choosing the best empirical approach to resolving the questions at hand.

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