ABSTRACT
Agency values play a crucial role in the processes and outcomes of the issuebased social choice systems outlined in the preceding chapter. Agency perceptions of the impact of external developments upon satisfaction of particular values constitute the complex of opportunity and threat motivating agency (in) action, and, correspondingly, contribute to levels of value conflict and stress. Agency beliefs concerning the linkages among a set of particular choice options as well as the realization of agency values provide the basis of agency utility functions and preference rankings. Agency values also directly impinge upon risk propensity, resolve, and issue salience-factors which in turn are vital elements in an account of the competitiveness and policy outcomes of social choice systems. To the extent that the relative salience of issues is based upon differences in the relationships of these issues to agency values, agency values represent an integral element in the postulation of the probability and parameters of bargaining situation issue linkages. It follows that analysis of the various linkages between agency values and the central components of agency social action lies at the heart of an interpretive understanding of social action. Thus, models of agency values represent an integral component of the analysis of international politics.
