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The Strategy of Rhetoric: Campaigning for the American Constitution. By William H. Riker. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. xvi, 283 pp. $30.00, ISBN 0-300-06169-2.)
William H. Riker, who died in 1993, was a major figure in the movement to apply formal (rational choice) theory to the analysis of history and political institutions. This innovative, at times brilliant, publication was "substantially completed" at his death. It applies formal theory to the campaigns nationally and in the states of Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York in 1787 and 1788 to secure ratification of the Constitution of the United States.
Riker's primary objectives are to understand the role of rhetoric-how policies are presented, discussed, and decided upon-in the transmission and approval of political ideas and to place this analysis in the context of a general positive (or rational choice) theory of political action. Riker also views this work as a response to the study of campaigns (and history) that centers on subjectivity and anecdotes...