Representation, deliberation and strategic interaction in collective decision-making

Panel Chairs:

Bernhard Kittel, University of Oldenburg, Germany

Katharina Zahradnik, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, katharina.zahradnik@ihs.ac.at

Abstract:

The aim of the panel is to explore the practices of deliberation and representation in the context of strategic interaction. The representation of various views and  preferences in processes of collective decision-making is a problem that is paramount in politics. How do parties negotiate such tensions and how does the intra-party discourse match bargaining between different factions within the party? How do different actors in a committee frame and develop their cause in the context of their aim of getting the maximum out of a bargaining process? What is the influence of institutional conditions such as the structures of delegation and decision-making rules on processes of deliberation and strategic interaction?

 We contend that the study of such questions requires both game theoretically based models of strategic interaction and an interpretive understanding of the aims and actual choices of the actors involved. In the panel we thus want to bring together scholars who work in the tradition of interpretive policy analysis and scholars who base their empirical work on formal models. Moreover, we aim to bring together scholars who study mechanisms of strategic deliberation in both empirical and experimental settings. While interpretive empirical work allows to understand motives and trace the evolution of discourses in competitive real-world settings, the experimental approach enables scholars to control the frame in which such processes take place and hence helps to theorize apparent regularities.

 We invite papers that deal with deliberative processes among representatives of heterogeneous groups in a setting that is defined by a situation in which goal-attainment depends on the actions of others. This definition is deliberately abstract in order not to limit the scope to particular examples or situations. The panel is meant to foster cooperation between scholars working in different paradigms.