The effect of dynamic and static choice sets on political decision making: An analysis using the decision board platform Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Previous studies of political decision making have used only static choice sets, where alternatives are fixed and area prioriknown to the decision maker. We assess the effect of adynamicchoice set (new alternatives appear during the decision process) on strategy selection and choice in international politics. We suggest that decision makers use a mixture of decision strategies when making decisions in a two-stage process consisting of an initial screening of available alternatives, and a selection of the best one from the subset of remaining alternatives. To test the effects of dynamic and static choice sets on the decision process we introduce a computer-based process tracer in a study of top-ranking officers in the U.S. Air Force. The results show that (1) national security decision makers use a mixture of strategies in arriving at a decision, and (2) strategy selection and choice are significantly influenced by the structure of the choice set (static versus dynamic).

published proceedings

  • AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW

altmetric score

  • 0.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Mintz, A., Geva, N., Redd, S. B., & Carnes, A.

citation count

  • 85

complete list of authors

  • Mintz, A||Geva, N||Redd, SB||Carnes, A

publication date

  • January 1997