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2016　Behavioral Theory of Public Systems

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Academic unit or major
Undergraduate major in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Instructor(s)
Sakano Tatsurou 
Class Format
Lecture     
Media-enhanced courses
Day/Period(Room No.)
Tue1-2(W932)  Fri1-2(W932)  
Group
-
Course number
CVE.D312
Credits
2
Academic year
2016
Offered quarter
3Q
Syllabus updated
2016/4/27
Lecture notes updated
-
Language used
Japanese
Access Index

Course description and aims

In this course students are required to read the original texts of theories and thoughts on public systems. Understanding normative theories as well as descriptive ones with high explanatory power is required for designing public systems since performance of public system is influenced by interactive human behaviors, for whose understanding and explanation the theory should contain both aspects of normative and descriptive. Theories and thoughts on public matters are developed by various disciplines, such as politics, economics, sociology and psychology. This course is intended to give an integral framework across various disciplines by focusing on the correspondence between action models and institutional designs.
　　The aim of this course is to give students deep understanding on analytical concepts and their related theories which can be used for evaluating critically and redesigning exiting systems .

Student learning outcomes

The goals of this course are as following: 1) to understand how liberal and republican thoughts, the two major thought streams of public systems design, liberal and republican thoughts, are reflected in alternative models of human actions, 2) to understand the relationship between action models and institutional designs, and 3) to acquire capability to imagine and design resilient public systems in so called Reflective Modern Society, characterized by uncertainty and conflicting plural values.

Keywords

Discursive Design, Institutional Design, Collective Action Dilemma, Civil Society

Competencies that will be developed

✔ Specialist skills Intercultural skills Communication skills ✔ Critical thinking skills ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

It is required to read the texts assigned before the class. The instructor introduces the ideas behind the texts and class discussion will follow.

Course schedule/Required learning

  Course schedule Required learning
Class 1 Critical Rationalism and Open Society Understand critical rationalism and explain its influence on social system design
Class 2 Critical Theory and Discursive Design Understand the relationship between critical theory and discursive design and explain their influence on social system design
Class 3 Axiomatic Social Choice Theory and Voting Paradox Understand axiomatic social choice theory (single peakedness, median voter theorem, voting paradox) and explain the limitation of axiomatic theories
Class 4 Discursive Design and Voting Paradox Understand theories of Minipublics and Public Sphere and explain the problem of micro-macro linkage in discursive design
Class 5 Minipublics and Public Sphere Understand theories of Minipublics and Public Sphere and explain the problem of micro-macro linkage in discursive design
Class 6 Asymmetric Information and Governance Understand basic theories of incentive contract to avoid adverse selection and moral hazard , and define and evaluate institution design as incentive contract problem
Class 7 Incomplete Contract and Governance Understand basic theories of incomplete contract theory to avoid hold up problem, and define and evaluate institution design as incomplete contract problem
Class 8 Collective Action Dilemma and Governance Define institution design problem as a collective action problem and evaluate efficiency of institution
Class 9 Property Right and Efficiency of Market Understand basic theories of property right and apply those theories to evaluate efficiency of institution
Class 10 Structural G/E Hypothesis Understand G/E hypothesis and construct models of human action with reciprocity and trust
Class 11 Intrinsic Motivation and MSC Paradigm Understand intrinsic motivation theory and explain MSC paradigm
Class 12 Reflective Modernity and Civil Society Understand reflective modernity and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society
Class 13 Theory of Communicative Action and Life World Understand the theory of communicative action and the life world proposed by J.Habermas, and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society
Class 14 Institution, Network, Civic Virtue Understand two functions of institution, action restrictive function and moral generating function, and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society
Class 15 Economic Theory of Voluntary Non-profit Organization Understand economic mechanisms of voluntary non-profit organizations, and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society

Textbook(s)

None.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

The reading materials are provided before the class.

Assessment criteria and methods

Mini quiz in each class: 40%
Term paper: 60%

Related courses

  • UDE.D471 ： Principles of Public Systems Design
  • UDE.D409 ： Planning Theory

Prerequisites (i.e., required knowledge, skills, courses, etc.)

None.

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