Rationalist Theories of Politics: A Midterm Report

1978 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Rogowski
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

Rational-choice theories of politics have gained acceptance rapidly and may soon dominate the field. Their popularity is due in part to their real successes, which can be demonstrated in several areas, and to their hypothetical-deductive structure. But some students, in their eagerness to embrace what is by now a theoretical fad, have either ignored inconvenient facts or weakened the theory to fit them. Both the promise and the risk are demonstrated by reference to recent works by Mayhew, Niskanen, Rabushka and Shepsle, and de Swaan.

Rational-Choice Theories in Political Sociology

2003 ◽  
pp. 172-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Kiser ◽  
Shawn Bauldry
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

scholarly journals Rational Choice Theories and Politics: A Research Agenda and a Moral Question

1990 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurg Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Moral Question ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

A feminist critique of rational-choice theories: Implications for sociology

1989 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula England
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

The certainty–offending relationship as a function of a nation's free market cultural ethos

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082110396
Author(s):  
Glenn D Walters
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Free Market ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Modeling Analysis ◽  
Rational Choice Theories ◽  
Level Variable ◽  
Level 2

The current study sought to integrate aspects of classic strain and institutional anomie theories with concepts from deterrence and rational choice theories for application in a large sample of European respondents. Participants were 52,458 individuals (55% female, average age = 48 years) from the fifth round of the 27-country European Social Survey. Each participant rated their involvement in three relatively minor offenses (false insurance claims, buying stolen property, and traffic offenses) over the past five years along with their perceived certainty of getting caught and punished should they commit one or more of these prohibited acts. Each country's total 2010 Index of Economic Freedom score was also included in the study as a level 2 variable in a two-level multilevel modeling analysis. Consistent with predictions, participants from countries with higher Index of Economic Freedom scores displayed a significantly stronger connection between certainty of punishment and involvement in minor offending than participants from lower Index of Economic Freedom countries. An additional individual-level variable, the marketized mentality, was also included in the analysis and while it correlated with minor offending, it failed to interact with the Index of Economic Freedom or alter free market cultural ethos moderation of the certainty-offending relationship. These findings suggest that individuals living in a country with a strong free market cultural ethos are more apt to incorporate rational choice principles like certainty into their crime-related decisions than individuals residing in a country with a weaker free market cultural ethos.

Deterrence and Rational Choice Theories of Crime

Criminology ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 125-179
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Brown ◽  
Finn-Aage Esbensen ◽  
Gilbert Geis
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

scholarly journals Curbing protest through elite co-optation? Regional protest mobilization by the Russian systemic opposition during the ‘for fair elections’ protests 2011–2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Matti Dollbaum
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Regime Stability ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Rational Choice Theories ◽  
Opposition Parties

How does co-optation of oppositional party elites influence their protest behavior in times of cross-societal protest mobilization? Rational-Choice theories of authoritarian stability postulate that opposition elites receive material incentives in parliaments that motivate them to demobilize their radical supporters, which leads to increased regime stability. Based on a novel dataset, this article examines the protest behavior of the Russian parliamentary opposition parties (the CPRF, the LDPR and JR) and their activists during the protest wave of 2011/12 as a function of each party's co-optation in the regional parliaments. Co-optation is measured by the number of leadership posts that a party holds in the regional legislature. Protest mobilization is captured by (1) the number of protest events organized by each party and (2) the aggregate number of party activists present at protest events per region. The results show clear differences between the parties: Whereas the protest behavior of the communist CPRF is not influenced by regional elite co-optation, the analysis shows negative correlations for the LDPR and JR. The results suggest that co-optation may indeed be effective in reducing protest in contentious times – but that its effect varies for different actors.

scholarly journals Does It Pay To Pray? Costly Ritual and Cooperation

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley J. Ruffle ◽  
Richard Sosis
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Orthodox Judaism ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

Abstract Time-consuming and costly religious rituals pose a puzzle for economists committed to rational choice theories of human behavior. We propose that either through selection or a causal relationship, the performance of religious rituals is associated with higher levels of cooperation. To test this hypothesis we design field experiments to measure the in-group cooperative behavior of members of religious and secular Israeli kibbutzim, communal societies for which mutual cooperation is a matter of survival. Our results show that religious males (the primary practitioners of collective religious ritual in Orthodox Judaism) are more cooperative than religious females, secular males and secular females. Moreover, the frequency with which religious males engage in collective religious rituals predicts well their degree of cooperative behavior.

Universalism in Experimental Committees

1982 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary J. Miller ◽  
Joe A. Oppenheimer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Real World ◽  
Coalition Formation ◽  
Winning Coalition ◽  
Committee Decision Making ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
High Level ◽  
Rational Choice Theories

Most rational choice theories of committee decision making predict a process of competitive coalition formation leading to a minimum winning coalition. Committee experiments reported to date tend to support these theories. However, both theories and committee experiments are contradicted by the evidence of real-world legislatures making distributive decisions; these decisions are characterized by coalitions of the whole providing virtually all members with a share of distributive benefits. The results in this article help to resolve this contradiction by showing that if the committee experimental design includes a universalistic alternative which provides a high level of expected benefits for committee members, it will be selected. Competitive coalition formation occurs in experimental settings which do not include such an alternative. The results call into question the generality of ordinalist theories of competitive coalition formation.

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