On William Riker’s Theory Of Political Coalitions

William Riker, Who established the Rochester School, is an important scholar in rational choice theory. His theory of political coalitions brings the game theory into political science, and gradually built the positive political theory. Hence, Riker’s theory of political coalitions has important significance at theoretical and methodologic level. Riker’s theory has not been emphasized adequately by Chinese scholars.Politics, in the beginning of 20 th century, undergone the wave of scientization. Simultaneously, the methods of nature science and escalating economics provided model worth considering in some extents. In this context, Riker attempted to constructed unprecedented political behavior theory, in the light of the theory of common coalitions.In the process of establishing the theory, Riker dug the previous research outcomes at full blast. Karl Popper’s philosophy of science, minimax theorem, N-person zero-sum game, and the economic theory of democracy laid the foundations of his theory.Riker’s establishment of the theory of political coalitions embarked on the discussion of research methods. Riker constructed the procedure and steps, the positive methods, in the light of which he adopted the rational choice model as basic theoretical model, thereby deducing the theory of political coalitions by N-person zero-sum game.In the instruction of the foregoing methods, Riker set forth the three principles of the theory of political coalitions, namely, the size principle, the strategy principle and the disequilibrium principle. The size principle is that, in situations similar to N-person zero-sum games with side-payment, participants create coalitions just as large as they believe will ensure winning and no large. The strategy principle is that the participators march gradually to the destination of the minimum winning coalitions in the last phase, when the size principle is functioning in the system. Immediately, Riker propose the disequilibrium principle, which is that the system is disequilibrium, when the size principle and the strategy principle have been implemented.The academic critics emerged with the appearance of Riker’s theory of political coalitions, firstly, generally, criticizing the analytical path, as the research method of the theory of political coalitions; Secondly, from the game theory’s level, pointing out there are some drawbacks in the theoretical deduction; Thirdly, from the view of practical confirmation, considering that the theory of political coalitions can’t be verified in reality. Riker and his followers also accounted accordingly for the theory of political coalitions. What is more, some scholars perfected the theory further, some asserting that coalition comprising of minimal party members develops easily, some setting forth the concept of the minimum connected winning coalition basing on Riker’s dedication, some considering that dominant central players exist in the Winning Coalition inevitably.In summary, what we can discover is that the fundamental traits of the theory of political coalition consists in realism in the light of scientism and the spirit of theoretical extension constructively, the integration of the game theory and political science and the application of complete empirical research methods, and the pursuing of equilibrium in macro-politics and the critiquing of factual democratic politics. Riker’s theory of political coalition is the zero of The Rochester School’s research tradition, proving new route to select for political development, some possibilities of transformation of the rational choice theory from institutionalism to rational choice institutionalism, and imperative theoretical foundation of the research in the composition and durability of allied government. There are also shortcomings and defects. Firstly, that the hypothesis of rational people have reduced from an axiom to ideological faith has shrunk the reliability of rational people supposition. Secondly, disregarding institutions degrades the persuasion of the theory. Thirdly, pursuing the distribution of theory leads to the deficit of accuracy rates in the process of confirmation.