The Rational Choice Approach to Politics: A Challenge to Democratic Theory

1991 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark P. Petracca
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Central Argument

In just three decades rational choice theory has emerged as one of the most active, influential, and ambitious subfields in the discipline of political science. Rational choice theory contends that political behavior is best explained through the application of its supposedly “value-neutral” assumptions which posit man as a self-interested, purposeful, maximizing being. Through the logic of methodological individualism, assumptions about human nature are treated as empirical discoveries. My central argument is that by assuming that self-interest is an empirically established component of human nature, rational choice theory supports and perpetuates a political life which is antithetical to important tenets of normative democratic theory. Rational choice theory offers an incoherent account of democratic citizenship and produces a political system which shows a constant biased against political change and pursuit of the public interest. This article concludes by discussing the merits of democratic deliberation for achieving these transformative ends.

The Quiet Resolution of the Science Wars

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-79
Author(s):  
Matt Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Frequentist Statistics ◽  
Science Wars ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

The “science wars” were resolved surprisingly quietly. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, critics of science from humanities disciplines fought with scientists over the extent to which science is a social and biased process or a path to truth. Today, there are few absolute relativists or adherents of scientific purity and far more acknowledgment that science involves biased truth-seeking. Continuing (but less vicious) wars over Bayesian and frequentist statistics likewise ignore some key agreements: tests of scientific claims require clarifying assumptions and some way to account for confirmation bias, either by building it into the model or by establishing more severe tests for the sufficiency of evidence. This sedation was accompanied by shifts within social science disciplines. Debates over both simplistic models of human nature (especially over rational choice theory) and over what constituted proper quantitative and qualitative methods died down as nearly everyone became theoretically and methodologically pluralist in practice. I herald this evolution, pointing to its benefits in the topics we cover, the ideas we consider, the evidence we generate, and how we evaluate and integrate our knowledge.

Revisiting the role of process incentives as a determinant of university students’ protest

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-253
Author(s):  
Elias Dinas ◽  
Kostas Gemenis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The Public

Drawing on the original data collected during a period of university student protest in Greece, we explore whether the expected gains from the act of protesting itself influence an individual's decision to participate in collective action. More particularly, we investigate the extent to which the process incentives qualify the weight individuals attach to the primary elements of the original cost–benefit equation of rational choice theory as well as other considerations in their decision-making process. Our findings point out that the magnitude of the effect of the process incentives is very strong and its inclusion in a rational choice model improves our understanding of students’ participation in protest activities. Turning to indirect effects, we show that process incentives behave as a first stage precondition for the students’ decision to participate in collective action. In the absence of perceived benefits associated with the process of protesting, the importance of attaining the public good becomes much less important in their decision-making process.

Republic Inc.

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-44
Author(s):  
Jason Blakely
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Republic

Popular claims to a science of economics have had an enormous impact on reshaping the nature of democracy in Europe and the United States. This chapter uncovers how a popular vision of human beings as egoistic preference maximizers (known to philosophers as homo economicus) played a major role in this transformation. Drawing on the authority and technical sophistication of economic rational choice theory, this popular discourse gave birth to a “market polis” in which all human relations are reimagined as transactional. The result has been the presentation of an egoistic form of citizenship, deficient in social solidarity, as if it were simply a fundamentally scientific view of political life. This has contributed to the move away from earlier notions of the public good (both in the New Deal and the founding of the republic) as well as backsliding toward increasingly authoritarian and antidemocratic forms of politics.

scholarly journals Homo Economicus and the Stories of Jacob: On the Methodological Relevance of Rational Choice Theory for Studying the Hebrew Bible

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigmund A. Wagner-Tsukamoto
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Economic Study ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Methodological Perspective ◽  
Economic Methods

Abstract Economics is widely accused of being a portrayer of a dark and dismal image of human nature (i.e. its model of homo economicus as a self-interested, even selfish and opportunistic maximizer of its own gains). This article argues that the model of homo economicus is not an empirical or prescriptive image of human nature but a useful, “heuristic,” methodical instrument for economic theorizing (in our case, for the economic study of religion that connects to the Hebrew Bible). This article demonstrates that in generic, methodological perspective, the model of homo economicus compares well to similarly unrealistic, “dismal” models of human nature in other disciplines that study religion. I develop these arguments by focusing on selective stories from Genesis, especially the stories of Jacob. Implications are derived regarding the application of economic methods and concepts for research on the texts in the Hebrew Bible.

The Biological Justification of Ethics: A Best-Case Scenario

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Structure ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Normative Implications

Social and behavioral scientists — that is, students of human nature — nowadays hardly ever use the term ‘human nature’. This reticence reflects both a becoming modesty about the aims of their disciplines and a healthy skepticism about whether there is any one thing really worthy of the label ‘human nature’.For some feature of humankind to be identified as accounting for our ‘nature’, it would have to reflect some property both distinctive of our species and systematically influential enough to explain some very important aspect of our behavior. Compare: molecular structure gives the essence or the nature of water just because it explains most of its salient properties. Few students of the human sciences currently hold that there is just one or a small number of such features that can explain our actions and/or our institutions. And even among those who do, there is reluctance to label their theories as claims about ‘human nature’.Among anthropologists and sociologists, the label seems too universal and indiscriminant to be useful. The idea that there is a single underlying character that might explain similarities threatens the differences among people and cultures that these social scientists seek to uncover. Even economists, who have explicitly attempted to parlay rational choice theory into an account of all human behavior, do not claim that the maximization of transitive preferences is ‘human nature’.I think part of the reason that social scientists are reluctant to use ‘human nature’ is that the term has traditionally labeled a theory with normative implications as well as descriptive ones.

Rational Choice Theory and the 1990 Party Merger in South Korea

OUGHTOPIA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-282
Author(s):  
In-Kyun Kim ◽  
Myeong-Geon Koh
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory

POLITICS-LAW CONVERGENCE OR DIVERGENCE? 'SMALL' POLITICAL PARTIES, REALPOLITIKAND SOUTH AFRICA'S 20 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kealeboga J Maphunye
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Secondary Research ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
African Charter

This article examines South Africa's 20-year democracy by contextualising the roles of the 'small' political parties that contested South Africa's 2014 elections. Through the  prism  of South  Africa's  Constitution,  electoral legislation  and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, it examines these parties' roles in South Africa's democratisation; their influence,  if any, in parliament, and whether they play any role in South Africa's continental or international engagements. Based on a review of the extant literature, official documents,  legislation, media, secondary research, reports and the results of South Africa's elections, the article relies on game theory, rational choice theory and theories of democracy and democratic consolidation to examine 'small' political parties' roles in the country's political and legal systems. It concludes that the roles of 'small' parties in governance and democracy deserve greater recognition than is currently the case, but acknowledges the extreme difficulty experienced by the 'small'  parties in playing a significant role in democratic consolidation, given their formidable opponent in a one-party dominant system.

Rational Choice Contractualism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Moehler
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Correct Choice ◽  
Original Position ◽  
Decision Situation ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Traditional Understanding

This chapter discusses contractualist theories of justice that, although they rely explicitly on moral assumptions in the traditional understanding of morality, employ rational choice theory for the justification of principles of justice. In particular, the chapter focuses on the dispute between Rawls and Harsanyi about the correct choice of principles of justice in the original position. The chapter shows that there is no winner in the Rawls–Harsanyi dispute and, ultimately, formal methods alone cannot justify moral principles. This finding is significant for the development of the rational decision situation that serves for the derivation of the weak principle of universalization for the domain of pure instrumental morality.

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