Looking for a Science of Politics. William H. Riker and the Adoption of Game Theory in Political Science

This dissertation aims to contribute to the history of Game Theory by showing how the Theory of Games crossed the disciplinary domain of Economics and entered into Political Science. This process was mainly due to American political scientist William H. Riker, who, albeit trained as a traditional political scientist, in the second half of the 1950s, became really committed to game theory and formal (viz. mathematical) political science. Then, his activities were pivotal in devising that subfield of contemporary political science, known as "Positive Political Theory. As for the methodology of this work, this thesis is a historical reconstruction of Riker’s early works, primarily "The Theory of Political Coalitions", published in 1962. In particular, it is discussed the specific use Riker made of Game Theory, providing some criticisms to part of his work. But, at the same time, it is a work resting heavily on historical research, like archival material and interviews, in order to reconstruct also the external forces that bolstered Riker’s efforts to establish "Positive Political Theory.