Rational Choice Theory in Political Science Essay -- Politics Culture

apt Choice surmise in political ScienceAccording to one of acute woof theorys prominent and more thoughtful contemporary exponents, Peter C. Ordeshook, four books emphasise the beginning of modern political theory Anthony Downss An Economic possibleness of Democracy (1957), Duncan Blacks Theory of Committees and Elections (1958), William H. Rikers A Theory of Political Coalitions (1962), and James Buchanan and Gordon Tullocks The Calculus of Consent (1962). These volumes, along with Kenneth pointers Social Choice and Individual Values (1951), began such a wealth of research that political scientists today have difficulty digesting and synthesizing every(prenominal) unless small parts of it. Consequently, the full value of this research frequently goes unrealized (Ordeshook 1986, ix) In this essay I will argue that, adverse to Ordeshooks claim, the full value of this research has actually been overstated not for the lack of profundity in the assumptions and certain selecte d observations contained in the literature mentioned above, but for the bankruptcy of rational resource theory in explaining political phenomena empirically. This failure can be understood in terms of the fallacies associated with rational choice theorys predictive and universalist determinations, as well as in terms of the methodological misuse of the basic assumptions of rational choice theory when actually used in explanatory frameworks. As Donald honey oil and Ian Shapiro argue, the weaknesses of rational choice scholarship are rooted in the aspiration of rational choice theorists to come up with universal theories of politics, which leads many rational choice theorists to pursue even more subtle forms of theory elaboration, with itty-bitty attention to how these theories m... ...tional Choice Controversy Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered. New harbor Yale University compactGreen, Donald P. and Ian Shapiro. 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory A Critique of A pplications in Political Science. New Haven Yale University infatuationGreen, Donald P. and Ian Shapiro. 1996. Pathologies Revisited Reflections on Our Critics. In The Rational Choice Controversy Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered, ed. Jeffrey Friedman. New Haven Yale University PressMiller, Byron. 1992. Collective Action and Rational Choice Place, Community, and the Limits to Individual Self-Interest. Economic geography 681, 22-42Ordeshook, Peter C. 1986. Game Theory and Political Theory. New York Cambridge University Press Shapiro, Ian. 1998. Can the Rational Choice Framework Cope with Culture? PS Political Science and Politics 311, 40-42