Fundamentals of Political Science

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Fundamentals of Political Science

• Dr. Sujian Guo
• Professor of Political Science
• San Francisco State Unversity
• Email sguo_at_sfsu.edu
• http//bss.sfsu.edu/sguo

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• Only the rational choice model is capable of
  satisfying the requirements for a scientific
  political science
• W. Riker

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What motivates human behavior?

• Rational choice theory is based on the choice of
  motivational variables as explanatory
  (independent) variables for the explanation of
  human behavior, social conflict or cooperation in
  a given society. Those motivations include
• self-interest
• public interest
• economic, political, and moral motivations

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What is the hardcore of rational choice?

• ? The hardcore of rational choice would be based
  on the conception of human beings as homo
  economicus economic man pursues self-interest
  (sole motive) to obtain the highest possible
  well-being for himself at the least possible
  costs given available information about
  opportunities and constraints on his ability to
  achieve his goals. This is referred to as
  rationality.

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What is the hardcore of rational choice?

• Rational behavior is to choose the best among
  all possible of different means and alternative
  ends by weighing the relative importance or
  utility assigned to each particular mean or end.
  Irrational behavior is just the opposite
  choose the worst among all possible
  inefficient, counterproductive, self-defeating,
  symbolic, etc.
• Individual choice example
• Policy choice example

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Background

• This approach emerged in the study of politics in
  the 1950s and 1960s. It was first contributed by
  economists.  Some key works by prize winners
• Kenneth Arrow, Social Choice and Individual
  Values.
• Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy.
• Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action.
• Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict
• William H. Riker, The Theory of Political
  Coalitions.

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Main Characteristics of Rational Choice Theory

• The approach is methodologically
  individualist  takes actors as units (usually
  individuals, but can also be groups, parties or
  states).  Most important elements or
  characteristics of rational choice theories
• Preferences  Assumed desires and wants of
  individuals.  Actors will prefer some outcomes
  over others (e.g., maximize power, votes, etc.)

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Main Characteristics of Rational Choice Theory

• Strategies  Actions or means available to
  actors.
• Rationality  Refers to consistency of
  preferences for ranking alternatives, and choice
  of best possible strategy.
• Constraints  Constitute the rules of the game,
  and will influence actions and outcomes. 

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Main Characteristics of Rational Choice Theory

• Uncertainty and strategic interaction  Outcomes
  may not be known for sure.  Individuals can only
  choose actions, not directly outcomes. Strategic
  interaction is an important kind of uncertainty,
  and is at the core of most interesting rational
  choice applications in the study of politics. 
• Equilibrium  exists when there are no individual
  incentives to change ones behavior (i.e.,
  nuclear mutual destruction no possibility to
  achieve a more preferred outcome, given the
  actions of the other actors involved).  It is
  used to predict and explain outcomes of strategic
  interaction.

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Prisoners Dilemma and collective action

• If you stay silent you will each be sentenced
  to 1 year in prison however, if you confess and
  testify against your partner, you will be free,
  while your partner will get a 10-year sentence
  on the other hand, if both of you confess, you
  will both be sentenced to 5 years.  This
  situation can be represented in a table

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• PRISONER 2 Not confess Confess
• (cooperate) (defect)
• Not confess
• PRISONER 1 (cooperate) 1,  1 10,  0
  
• Confess
• (defect) 0,  10 5,  5
• Pay-offs first number indicates years in
  prison for Prisoner1 second
• number years in prison for Prisoner 2.

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Strengths

• Rational choice approaches combine a
  scientific emphasis on rigorous analytical
  models with a strong theoretical focus on human
  values. On one hand, human preferences,
  interests, and objectives are used as the basic
  explanatory and predictive variables of human
  behavior while on the other hand more rigorous
  scientific techniques borrowed from the natural
  sciences, ranging from statistical techniques to
  mathematical modeling, are employed for
  scientific explanation.

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Weaknesses

• However, the problem is what is taken as
  "rational" - preferences are defined to be
  rational if they are complete and transitive.
  That is, that the decision maker is able to
  compare all of the alternatives, and that these
  comparisons are consistent. This is often not
  true in real world.
• If uncertainty is involved, then more assumptions
  have to be made in addition to rational
  preferences.

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Weaknesses

• Rationality can also mean that the decision maker
  always chooses the most preferred option, which
  is often not true in the real world.
• To simplify calculation and make prediction, some
  rather unrealistic assumptions are made about the
  world. These can include
• An individual has precise information about
  exactly what will occur under any choice made.
• An individual has time and ability to weigh every
  choice against every other choice.
• An individual is fully aware of all possible
  choices.