Summary RC

Chapter 1. It isn’t rocket science, but …

 In short, the political science that a college student at the end of WWII might have
encountered was descriptive and judgmental
o It was much less oriented toward explanation and analysis

 Not until 1960s that systematic attention began to focus on the questions of “why”

 Models
o = stylizations meant to approximate in very crude fashion some real situation
o Purposely stripped- down versions of the real thing

 Theory
o = an embellishment of a model in which features that are abstract in the model are
made more concrete and specific in the theory
o = specialized elaboration of a model intended for a specific application

 Politics = the authoritative allocation of values for a society (David Easton)

Chapter 2. Rationality: The Model of Choice

 Rational choice approach
o Aka formal pol theory, positive pol theory, pol economy
o Is a form of methodological individualism = the individual is taken as the basic unit of
analysis

 There is nothing distinctly economic about rational behavior

 Rationality
o Does not mean brilliant or all knowing
o People are neither all knowing nor worldy wise
o They have wants and beliefs, both of which affect their behavior

PRELIMINARIES

 Preferences
o = individual wants
o Can be inspired by any # of diff sources

 Self- interested = People who act in accord w their preferences

 An individual’s conception of self is reflected in his or her preferences and priorities

 The world of preferences and priorities is an interior world

, Complementing this interior world is an external environment in which people find
themselves  This is filled w uncertainty

 People often cannot choose the thing they want directly, but instead must choose an
instrument
o Choose the instrument that leads to the outcome preferred the most
o Bc of uncertainty the effectiveness of behavioral instruments for the things an
individual want is only imperfectly known

 Beliefs
o = hunches an individual has concerning the efficacy of a given instrument or behavior
for obtaining something he or she wants
o Connect instruments to outcomes
o Come from a variety of sources
o May change as the individual acquires experience in his or her external environment

 Instrumental rationality = acting in accord both w one’s preference and one’s beliefs

 To sum up, …

 methodological individualism
o it is taken as fundamental that individuals have beliefs and preferences
o these things are the stuff of human cognition and motivation
o groups, classes, firms, and nation-states do not have minds, and thus cannot be said to
have preferences or hold beliefs

MOTIVATION

 Economics is concerned mainly w how 4 diff classes of actors choose to allocate what’s
theirs  1. Consumer, 2. Producers, 3. Worker, 4. Investors

 The purpose of the economist’s assumptions
o The reason is scientific, not substantive

 Corpus of scientific knowledge
o = a logically integrated collection of principles, a set of tools of inquiry (methodology if
you will) for prediction and explanation

 Scientific knowledge is cumulative  That distinguishes it from wisdom

THE SIMPLE LOGIC OF PREFERENCE AND CHOICE

 Objects over which actors have preferences are called alternatives

 xPiy
o person i prefers x to y

, o x is better than y acc to Mr i’s preferences

 xIi y
o Mr i is indifferent btwn x and y

 Thus
o Pi is i’s strict preference relation
o Ii is i’s indifference relation

 Thus
o a choice is rational if the object chosen is at least as good as any other available object
acc to the chooser’s preferences
o an object is a RC if no other available object is better acc to the chooser’s preferences

 Two underlying properties capture the commonsensical notion of rationality as ordering
things in terms of preference
o 1. Comparability: completeness
o 2. Transitivity

 1. Comparability: completeness
o Alternatives are comparable if, for any pair of them, the chooser either prefers the 1 st
to the 2nd, the 2nd to the 1st, or is indifferent btwn them

 2. Transitivity
o if i is indifferent btwn x and y and btwn y and z, then he is indifferent btwn x and z too

 preference ordering
o if i’s preferences satisfy comparability and transitivity, then i has a preference ordering

 ordering principles
o = preferences that permit rational choices

 Not all relations are complete or transitive
o Some… ; Others…

 Comparability
o You could push things far enough so that making a comparison in terms of preferences
would be absurd
o Real problem for it comes in situations in which the comparison doesn’t make sense to
the chooser
o Warning: advising appropriate use
o Choices must have meaning to the choosers if they are to be guided by principles
considerations such as those associated w rationality

 Transitivity
o Requires that the chooser not be confused in a diff sense
o Warning: about the domain over which it is likely to be more or less relevant and useful

, o When the stakes are low, uncertainty is high, and individual choices are of little
consequence to the chooser, then inconsistencies are likely to be common
o Behavior is likely to be more random that rational, more arbitrary than principled
o But when choices matter to the chooser, he or she is likely to be more intent on being
consistent

THE MAXIMIZATION PARADIGM

 The ass of comparability and transitivity yield an ordering principle (= …)

 Rationality is associated w both this capacity to order AND an aptitude to choose from
the top of the order

 maximizing behavior
o we think of rationality as consisting of this
o = individuals in soc situations are thought to be seeking some goal, pursuing some
objective, aiming to do the best they can acc to their own lights

ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY AND BELIEFS

 We should revise our idea of rationality, saying now that a rational individual chooses the
instrument or action he or she believes will lead to the best outcome

 Certainty
o =…
o When there is certainty, rational behavior is pretty apparent: simply pick the action or
instrument that leads to your highest-ranked alternative
 When the relationships are more complex, the principle of rational behavior requires
more explanations
 Utility number

 Risk
o =…
o Making a decision under conditions of risk involves choosing from among alternative
lotteries
 A RC is involves choosing the best lottery
 The rule of RC is known as the principle of expected utility
 Rationality requires a chooser to select the action that maximizes expected utility

 Uncertainty
o =…
o Under conditions of uncertainty, a chooser is sufficiently confused that he or she
cannot even figure out the likelihoods of various outcomes associated w each action