Politics and Game Theory
The United States, like many countries, suffers from a high degree of political polarization with both the Democratic and Republican parties wrestling for control of the government. In recent years, this has led American politics to become ever more chaotic, with each party doubling down on their contrasting views. As a result of this political climate, a vast majority of politicians continue to back their party’s decisions prompting a lack of bipartisanship. While this has in turn caused politicians to be criticised across the media, Gordon Kamer of the Harvard Political Review asserts in his article that continually voting by party lines makes sense from a game theory perspective as it is the best response in a scenario where neither side want to concede on an issue.
Consider the concept of prisoner’s dilemma which, as we have seen in lecture, involves two accomplices being interrogated individually. If neither one gives in, they will both serve limited jail time. Although, if either one betrays the other they will released while their accomplice is sentenced to a longer jail time. And if they both betray each other, they will both be sentenced to more jail time. This scenario can be used to model the political cooperation of two opposing, polarized parties.
The table depicts the prisoner’s dilemma scenario for cooperating on passing each party’s legislation. The ideal case would be that each party would cooperate with one another and pass legislation that benefits both parties. Although, in a nash equilibrium between two groups that are in direct competition with each other, this will not happen. Say party 1 agrees to pass some legislation of party 2. Party 2’s best response is to then not agree to back any further opposing legislation as it would go against their platform, this would result in a massive loss for party 1. Because of this, the dominant strategy for both parties is to never back any opposing legislation as this ensures neither party is left passing a bill that opposes their viewpoint without anything in return. This leads to a nash equilibrium where neither party can successfully push any legislation through congress. While this may seem unideal, Kamer is correct in finding that it leads to the fewest concessions.
https://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/hyper-partisanship-and-the-prisoners-dilemma/