POLS 203 PROSEMINAR POLITICAL SCIENCE
PROFESSOR TIMOTHY LIM
RATIONALITY, STRUCTURE, AND CULTURE
Key elements of Rational Choice
• Rationality is based on self-interested behavior
- Human beings are assumed to act primarily in their own self-interest
- This assumption about the basis for human action is the starting point of all analysis
• Rational action is based on a strategic calculation
- "To act rationally means ...to choose better alternatives over worse ones"
- To act strategically, means (most simply) to base one's action on a calculation of costs vs. benefits
How can these two assumptions help us better explain/understand the world? How can they help us better explain/understand political, social, economic phenomena?
