Marjolein Achterkamp
Abstract
In the research on influence strategies used in collective decision
making in policy domains two main theoretical approaches can be
distinguished: Conflict Resolution and Social Exchange theory. Until
now these approaches are compared by comparing the predictions of
two models of collective decision making which stem from these two
approaches: the Expected Utility model of Bueno de Mesquita and the
Exchange model of Stokman and Van Oosten.
However, this has lead to two problems. Although much effort is
put in collecting data on collective decision-making situations, the
available data sets are not yet sufficient to answer the question in
which collective decision-making situations the difference in
assumption on applied influence strategy lead to different
predictions. Because of this, I propose to use simulated data for a
more structured search.
Furthermore, since the Expected Utility model and the Exchange
model differ in more respects than just applied influence strategy,
it is questionable whether the differences in results stem from the
difference in applied influence strategy. To study the effect of
applied influence strategy, the Exchange model and Expected Utility
model have to be modified in such a way that they only differ in this
respect. These modifications lead to the Iterative Exchange model and
the Challenge model, which are the models that will be compared.
A design for a structered search using simulated data is
presented and the paper ends with some (preliminary) results.