Preferences, Institutions, and Rational Choice

Preferences, Institutions, and Rational Choice PDF Author: Keith M. Dowding
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Rational choice theory has gained considerable influence in politics and sociology over the past thirty years; the use of rational choice methods has proliferated in all areas of social inquiry. From the early days of formal proofs and unrealistic assumptions, rational choice is increasingly being used to model authentic situations and institutions. The collection of essays from leading British writers in the rational choice paradigm concentrates upon the two key aspects of rational choice: the role of preferences and institutions.

Preferences, Institutions, and Rational Choice

Preferences, Institutions, and Rational Choice PDF Author: Keith M. Dowding
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Rational choice theory has gained considerable influence in politics and sociology over the past thirty years; the use of rational choice methods has proliferated in all areas of social inquiry. From the early days of formal proofs and unrealistic assumptions, rational choice is increasingly being used to model authentic situations and institutions. The collection of essays from leading British writers in the rational choice paradigm concentrates upon the two key aspects of rational choice: the role of preferences and institutions.

Preferences and Situations

Preferences and Situations PDF Author: Ira Katznelson
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610443330
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
A scholarly gulf has tended to divide historians, political scientists, and social movement theorists on how people develop and act on their preferences. Rational choice scholars assumed that people—regardless of the time and place in which they live—try to achieve certain goals, like maximizing their personal wealth or power. In contrast, comparative historical scholars have emphasized historical context in explaining people's behavior. Recently, a common emphasis on how institutions—such as unions or governments—influence people's preferences in particular situations has emerged, promising to narrow the divide between the two intellectual camps. In Preferences and Situations, editors Ira Katnelson and Barry Weingast seek to expand that common ground by bringing together an esteemed group of contributors to address the ways in which institutions, in their wider historical setting, induce people to behave in certain ways and steer the course of history. The contributors examine a diverse group of topics to assess the role that institutions play in shaping people's preferences and decision-making. For example, Margaret Levi studies two labor unions to determine how organizational preferences are established. She discusses how the individual preferences of leaders crystallize and become cemented into an institutional culture through formal rules and informal communication. To explore how preferences alter with time, David Brady, John Ferejohn, and Jeremy Pope examine why civil rights legislation that failed to garner sufficient support in previous decades came to pass Congress in 1964. Ira Katznelson reaches back to the 13th century to discuss how the institutional development of Parliament after the signing of the Magna Carta led King Edward I to reframe the view of the British crown toward Jews and expel them in 1290. The essays in this book focus on preference formation and change, revealing a great deal of overlap between two schools of thought that were previously considered mutually exclusive. Though the scholarly debate over the merits of historical versus rational choice institutionalism will surely rage on, Preferences and Situations reveals how each field can be enriched by the other.

Political Choice

Political Choice PDF Author: Roland M Czada
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000307166
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This book, subtitled "political actors in institutional settings", addresses the main lines of reasoning of the new political institutionalism and rational choice theory. It discusses the question: Which particular rules, logics, or strategies of action can be found in the realm of politics?

Modern Political Economy

Modern Political Economy PDF Author: Jeffrey S. Banks
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521478106
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Political economy has been an essential realm of inquiry and has attracted myriad intellectual adherents for much of the period of modern scholarship. The discipline's formal split into the distinct studies of political science and economics in the nineteenth-century, while advantageous for certain scientific developments, has biased the way economists and political scientists think about many issues, and has placed artificial constraints on the study of many important social issues. This volume calls for a reaffirmation of the importance of the unified study of political economy, and explores the frontiers of the interaction between politics and markets. This volume brings together intellectual leaders of various areas, drawing upon state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical analysis from each of the underlying disciplines. Each chapter, while beginning with a survey of existing work, focuses on profitable lines of inquiry for future developments. Particular attention is devoted to fields of active current development.

Institutions and Political Choice

Institutions and Political Choice PDF Author: Roland M. Czada
Publisher: Vu University Press
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description


Politics from Anarchy to Democracy

Politics from Anarchy to Democracy PDF Author: Irwin Lester Morris
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804745840
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Although the study of politics dates to ancient Greece, the basic questions that interested those earliest political scientists still linger with us today: What are the origins of government? What should government do? What conditions foster effective governance? Rational choice theory offers a new means for developing correctable answers to these questions. This volume illustrates the promise of rational choice theory and demonstrates how theory can help us develop interesting, fresh conclusions about the fundamental processes of politics. Each of the book’s three sections begins with a pedagogical overview that is accessible to those with little knowledge of rational choice theory. The first group of essays then discusses various ways in which rational choice contributes to our understanding of the foundations of government. The second set focuses on the contributions of rational choice theory to institutional analysis. The final group demonstrates ways in which rational choice theory helps to understand the character of popular government.

Nested Games

Nested Games PDF Author: George Tsebelis
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520911970
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Clearly written and easily understood by the nonspecialist, Nested Games provides a systematic, empirically accurate, and theoretically coherent account of apparently irrational political actions.

Choice, Preferences, and Procedures

Choice, Preferences, and Procedures PDF Author: Kotaro Suzumura
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674727444
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
Social choice theory critically assesses and rationally designs economic mechanisms for improving human well-being. Kotaro Suzumura—one of the world’s foremost thinkers in social choice theory and welfare economics—fuses abstract ideas with real-world economies to examine foundational issues of normative economics and collective decision making.

Social Institutions

Social Institutions PDF Author: Karl-Dieter Opp
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351328786
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
This is the first book to present a synthesis of rational choice theory and sociological perspectives for the analysis of social institutions.The origin of social institutions is an old concern in social theory. Currently it has re-emerged as one of the most intensely debated issues in social science. Among economists and rational choice theorists, there is growing awareness that most, if not all, of the social outcomes that are of interest to explain are at least partly a function of institutional constraints. Yet the role of institutions is negligible both in general equilibrium theory and in most neoclassical economic models. There is a burgeoning substantive interest in institutions ranging from social movements, to formal organizations, to states, and even international regimes.Rational choice theorists have made great strides in elucidating the effects of institutions on a variety of social outcomes, but they have paid insufficient attention to the social dynamics that lead to the emergence of these institutions. Typically, these institutions have been assumed to be a given, rather than considered as outcomes requiring explanation in their own right. Sociological theorists, in contrast, have long appreciated the role of social structural constraints in the determination of outcomes but have neglected the role of individual agents.Michael Hechter is professor emeritus in the department of Sociology at the University of Washington. He is the author of numerous books. He became an Elected Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004 and has been featured in Who's Who. He is also currently on editorial boards for a numerous amount of journals.Karl-Dieter Opp is professor of sociology at Univesitat Leipzig. He has been a Fellow of the European Academy of Sociology since 1999 and has been member of the Council and Treasurer since 2000. He is also current on the advisory board for the magazine Mind and Society.Reinhard Wippler is professor of theoretical sociology at the University of Utrecht and scientific director of the Interuniversity Center for Sociological Theory and Methodology.

Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory

Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory PDF Author: Mary Zey
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780803951365
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory is written in response to the neo-classical economic rational choice theories and organizational economic theories which have emerged in the past decade and gained center stage in current organizational analysis.