This book brings an exciting and innovative new approach to the study of politics today. It introduces political bargaining, a process at the heart of all political and economic exchanges in contemporary society and the very essence of politics itself, to provide a new framework and fresh insights to modern political science.

The authors trace the prevalence of bargaining processes in politics from the abstract level of individual human interaction and the `state of nature’ to the more concrete political or institutionalized level.

They introduce students to theory -- the basic models of game theory, rational choice theory and positivist approaches; practice -- the practical manifestations of political b