From Schelling’s seminal Essay on Bargaining:
A potent means of commitment, and some-times the only means, is the pledge of one’s reputation. If national representatives can arrange to be charged with appeasement for every small concession, they place concession visibly beyond their own reach. If a union with other plants to deal with can arrange to make any retreat dramatically visible, it places its bargaining reputation in jeopardy and thereby becomes visibly incapable of serious compromise. (The same convenient jeopardy is the basis for the universally exploited defense, “If I did it for you I’d have to do it for everyone else.”) But to commit in this fashion publicity is required. Both the initial offer and the final outcome would have to be known; and if secrecy surrounds either point, or if the outcome is inherently not observable, the device is unavailable.
Grover’s Pledge has been signed by 219 members of the House and 39 Senators.
Cheap Talk 
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November 29, 2012 at 12:20 pm
twicker
He does, indeed.
And, at this point, it seems that some in the GOP have decided that their reputations will suffer more if they keep their pledge to Norquist than if they break it – meaning that the means of commitment is breaking down. Thankfully.
December 23, 2012 at 10:30 am
Gaurav Khanna
Apologies if this is a duplicate comment to your post — I couldn’t seem to get it to appear at first.
That is an insightful comment about Norquist. I have recently become a big fan of Schelling. You may be interested in a more detailed blog post I wrote on the fiscal cliff, grand bargains, and how we can look to Schelling for ideas on how to get out:
http://options-trading-notes.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love.html
June 16, 2014 at 5:19 pm
Hoteluri In Albena
Statiunea Mamaia Hoteluri
I’m not sure exactly why but this site is loading very slow for me.
Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end?
I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.