William Riker

William Riker (born September 22, 1920, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.—died June 26, 1993, Rochester, New York) was an American political scientist who popularized the use of mathematical models, and in particular game theory, in the study of political behaviour.

After moving with his family to Indiana in 1932, Riker graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1938 and attended DePauw University in Greencastle (B.A., 1942). Because of his country’s involvement in World War II, Riker decided to defer his graduate studies and joined the Radio Corporation of America (later RCA Corporation), which was closely involved in the war effort, as a time-and-motion analyst. He resumed his studies after the war, receiving a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University in 1948. In the same year, Riker joined the faculty of Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he was granted tenure as a professor. He left in 1962 to accept a position at the University of Rochester. As a professor and department chair, Riker transformed Rochester’s political science department into a flagship of positive political theory, a term he coined to describe his approach, which aimed to produce empirically verifiable theories of political behaviour. Riker and his department were so closely connected that Riker’s approach came to be known as the Rochester School of Political Science. He also provided leadership for Rochester University itself as its dean of graduate studies (1978–83). A dedicated teacher and mentor, he continued to teach classes and advise students even after he became emeritus professor in 1991.

Riker was a pioneer and a transformative figure in political science. Dissatisfied with the nonscientific approach used by his peers, he introduced from economics the use of formal modeling. Riker labeled his theory “positive political theory,” because it endeavoured to produce only statements that are falsifiable and can be empirically verified. Riker’s scientific model of political behaviour is also known as a form of public choice theory, or rational choice theory, because it relies on the assumption that individuals base their decisions on their calculation of costs and benefits and their desire to maximize the latter.

Riker also exercised a profound and lasting influence on the study of federalism. In his Federalism: Origin, Operation, Significance (1964), he rejected the idea that federalism in the United States originated in the desire of the founders to promote a common good or to defend liberty against the encroachment of central government. Consistent with his rational-choice approach, he argued that a federal bargain was struck because it was in the best interests of its participants. More precisely, Riker believed that all successful federal systems derive from two conditions. On the one hand, politicians offering the federal bargain seek to increase the geographic territory under their control. On the other hand, regional politicians are ready to relinquish some degree of autonomy in the face of a common military threat or opportunity. Absent this common military threat or opportunity, however, regional politicians will choose to join only a decentralized and, according to Riker, unsustainable federal system. Riker defined federalism as a form of political organization in which different levels of government (regional, central) have authority over different issue areas. Riker also emphasized the importance of the party system. The more the central parties control the parties competing at the state or regional level, he believed, the more centralized the federal system will be.

Riker’s other seminal publications include The Theory of Political Coalitions (1962) and Liberalism Against Populism (1982). He served as president of the Public Choice Society (1966), a group dedicated to the advancement of public choice theory across disciplinary lines, and of the American Political Science Association (1982–83). Riker was also one of the first political scientists to be elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.