HSS
California Institute of Technology
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Peter C. Ordeshook

Peter C. Ordeshook

Professor of Political Science
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Office: 332A Baxter Hall
Email: ordeshook@hss.caltech.edu
Tel: 626-395-4478
Mailing Address:
California Institute of Technology
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
MC 228-77
Pasadena, CA 91125

Research interests

Election processes, international relations, and applications of game theory to politics.

Research Statement

Current research falls into three general categories. First, developing methodologies for the detection and measurement of electoral fraud, with specific application to Central Europe and the states of the former-USSR. This research is, of course, part of the larger agenda of studying voting generally in these states. Second, refinement and additional testing of a specific methodology for aggregate data analysis. Having found existing methods (e.g. G. King et al) imperfect and mis-specified, I, in collaboration with M. Myagkov and mathematicians at the Institute for Open Economy in Moscow have developed an extension of the Chambers-Steel model, which we are currently subjecting to testing with artificial data. Third, completion of my manuscript with M. Klochko using agent based modeling that focuses on endogenous time preferences and endogenous social networks. Upon completion of this manuscript (currently in galley form) the various models will be applied to other parameters of individual choice and alternative specifications of network transition structures.

Publications

Lessons for Citizens of a New Democracy. Edward Elgar, 1997.

A Primer in Political Theory. Routlege Press, 1992.

Constitutional secession clauses, with Yan Chen. Constitutional Political Economy 1994.