2021 Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Undergraduate major in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Behavioral Theory of Public Systems
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Tatsurou Sakano
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 1-2 Tue (W932) / 1-2 Fri (W932)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- CVE.D312
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
In this course students are required to read the original texts of theories and thoughts on public systems. Understanding normative theories as well as descriptive ones with high explanatory power is required for designing public systems since performance of public system is influenced by interactive human behaviors, for whose understanding and explanation the theory should contain both aspects of normative and descriptive. Theories and thoughts on public matters are developed by various disciplines, such as politics, economics, sociology and psychology. This course is intended to give an integral framework across various disciplines by focusing on the correspondence between action models and institutional designs.
The aim of this course is to give students deep understanding on analytical concepts and their related theories which can be used for evaluating critically and redesigning exiting systems .
Course description and aims
The goals of this course are as following: 1) to understand how liberal and republican thoughts, the two major thought streams of public systems design, liberal and republican thoughts, are reflected in alternative models of human actions, 2) to understand the relationship between action models and institutional designs, and 3) to acquire capability to imagine and design resilient public systems in so called Reflective Modern Society, characterized by uncertainty and conflicting plural values.
Keywords
Discursive Design, Institutional Design, Collective Action Dilemma, Civil Society
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
It is required to read the texts assigned before the class. The instructor introduces the ideas behind the texts and class discussion will follow.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction |
Understand critical rationalism and explain its influence on social system design |
| Class 2 | Critical Theory and Discursive Design |
Understand the relationship between critical theory and discursive design and explain their influence on social system design |
| Class 3 | Axiomatic Social Choice Theory and Voting Paradox |
Understand axiomatic social choice theory (single peakedness, median voter theorem, voting paradox) and explain the limitation of axiomatic theories |
| Class 4 | Discursive Design and Voting Paradox |
Understand theories of Minipublics and Public Sphere and explain the problem of micro-macro linkage in discursive design |
| Class 5 | Minipublics and Public Sphere |
Understand theories of Minipublics and Public Sphere and explain the problem of micro-macro linkage in discursive design |
| Class 6 | Asymmetric Information and Governance |
Understand basic theories of incentive contract to avoid adverse selection and moral hazard , and define and evaluate institution design as incentive contract problem |
| Class 7 | Incomplete Contract and Governance |
Understand basic theories of incomplete contract theory to avoid hold up problem, and define and evaluate institution design as incomplete contract problem |
| Class 8 | Collective Action Dilemma and Governance |
Define institution design problem as a collective action problem and evaluate efficiency of institution |
| Class 9 | Property Right and Efficiency of Market |
Understand basic theories of property right and apply those theories to evaluate efficiency of institution |
| Class 10 | Structural G/E Hypothesis |
Understand G/E hypothesis and construct models of human action with reciprocity and trust |
| Class 11 | Intrinsic Motivation and MSC Paradigm |
Understand intrinsic motivation theory and explain MSC paradigm |
| Class 12 | Reflective Modernity and Civil Society |
Understand reflective modernity and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society |
| Class 13 | Theory of Communicative Action and Life World |
Understand the theory of communicative action and the life world proposed by J.Habermas, and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society |
| Class 14 | Institution, Network, Civic Virtue |
Understand two functions of institution, action restrictive function and moral generating function, and make critical evaluation about the relationship among state, market and civil society |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
The reading materials are provided before the class.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Mini quiz in each class: 40%
Term paper: 60%
Related courses
- UDE.D471 ： Principles of Public Systems Design
- UDE.D409 ： Planning Theory
Prerequisites
None.