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Summary and Overview Rational Choice

Name: Summary and Overview Rational Choice
SKU: doc_704118
Rating: 4.50 (2 reviews)
Author: dannydonker

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Vak
Rationele-keuze theorie

Instelling
Universiteit Leiden (UL)

Boek
Analyzing Politics

Summary of the Rational Choice Readings from Shepsle and Dixit Summary will be updated before the exam to include overviews of the lecture content

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Aantal pagina's 34
Geschreven in 2019/2020
Type Samenvatting

iro
political science
rational choice
game theory
tragedy of the commons
prisoners dillemma
politicologie
international relations and organizations
rc

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Door: alexiskrypnyk • 2 jaar geleden

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dannydonker Lid sinds 5 jaar 370 documenten verkocht

Chapter 1: It isn’t rocket science
A science of politics
● Post-war political science
○ detailed contemporary description and political history writing discussing
almost every asset of American political life
○ thick description (Geertz)
○ primarily descriptive and judgmental, less oriented towards explanation and
analysis
● 1960s
○ focus on questions of why
○ empirical regularities
○

models and theories
● models
○ stylizations meant to reflect grosso modo the real situation
○ stripped down versions of the real thing
● theory
○ model made concrete through specifying abstract model features in the
theory

politics
● politics as indistinguishable from group life generally
○ consists of individuals interacting, cooperating etc. to pursue what they wish
in group life
● benefits
○ helps demystify politics
○ politics extended into daily life

,Chapter 2: Rationality: The model of choice
introduction
● rational choice approach
○ rationality as wants and needs that affect a person's behaviour

preliminaries
● people have preferences preferences
○ wants related to survival
○ socially acquired wants
○ influences: material/economic, religious values, moral precepts, ideological
dispositions, altruistic impulses, and a sense of common destiny with some
form of community
● people are self-interested
○ people pursue the things they regard as important
○ this may include altruistic actions: an individual's conception of self is
reflected in his or her preferences and priorities
● preferences and priorities as interior world
● assumptions need to be made about preferences
● external environment
○ uncertainty about preferences of the other
○ random events we have no control over
○ uncertainty
■ people often do not know how an instrument or behaviour they
adopt might relate to outcomes they value
■ if there was no uncertainty you’d just chose the instruments that lead
to your desired outcome (an A and studying)
● people hold certain beliefs
○ the hunches people have concerning the efficacy of a given instrument or
behaviour obtaining an outcome
○ connect instruments to outcomes
○ instrumental rationality: acting in accord with beliefs and preferences
○ derives from experience (I study and get an A, might as well try it again)
● rational choice is a form of methodological individualism
○ takes as fundamental that individuals have beliefs and preferences

motivation
● economic perspective
○ consumer: spending to maximize utility
○ producer: combine inputs to achieve maximum profits
○ endowment of worker as time
○ investors as providers of capital

, ●
● can we explain variations and regularities in economic performance, outcomes, and
behaviour with a simple set of assumptions?

the simple logic of preference and choice
● building of the model
○ three objects x y z over which A has preferences
○ xPA y : X is prefered over Y by A
○ XIA y : A is indifferent between X and Y
○ the choice is rational if it is made in accord with preferences: it is rational if
no other available object is better according to the chooser’s preferences
● Property 1: comparability
○ alternatives are comparable in terms of preference
○ alternatives are comparable if one option is prefered over the other
● Property 2: Transitivity
○ transitive if x is preferred over all other options
● if preferences are comparable and transitive then there is preference ordening
● problem of comparability
○ situations in which comparison doesn’t make sense
○ choices must have meaning to the choosers if they are to be guided by
principled considerations such as those associated with rationality

the maximization paradigm
● ordering principle
○ ordering a set of objects, that reflects personal tastes and values
○ rationality is associated with capacity and aptitude to order
● maximizing behaviour
○ what is the person seeking to maximize (goal)
○ look back at economics: consumers seek to maximize utility, producers
profits.. etc.

environmental uncertainty and beliefs
● in many circumstances the actor does not choose outcomes, but instruments that
can affect outcomes.
○ we can not choose to be president, but we can choose to instrument of a
campaign that might lead to office
● belief as a probability statement relating to the effectiveness of a specific action or
instrument for achieving various outcomes
● uncertainty

, ○ choices involving an uncertainty of outcome are choices of risk
● utility number
○ assigning a numerical value to an outcome x y z → u(x) etc.
○ ranking these numbers based on preference (quantifying how much we
prefer something over the other)
● probability
○ PrA (x)= ½ , PrA (y)= 0 , PrA(z) = ½
○ A = (½ x, 0 y, ½ z)
○ making a decision under risk involves choosing the best lottery: principle of
expected utility
○ EU(A) = PrA(x) ⋅ u(x) ⋅ PrA(y) ⋅ u(y) ⋅ PrA(z) ⋅ u(z)
● It is hard to be rational under confusion, but ordering is possible for people have
some hunch about utility

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