Political Science 2230E Lecture 16: rational choice

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 2230E
• Professor: Cristinede Clercy

Document Summary

Rational choice: big theories in poli sci, economics. In the u. s. most dominant approach in poli sci: canadians more skeptical, didn"t like anything american for a long time, powerful tool for understanding canadian politics, valuable in business and government, get consultants for this sometimes. Lots of disagreement around this: utility, all rational action involves utility maximization. Individuals trying to maximize utility: chooses the one that best serves objectives and preferences, choosing a strategy that serves our goals, softer version, we all have preferences so we have goals to meet preferences, consistency. Individuals can rank those preferences in order: consistent preferences, human beings have multiple preferences and can rank them, trasitivity. If i prefer a>b, b>c, then i must prefer a>c: apples over cranberries, cranberries over bananas, apples over bananas, consistent. Intransitive: a>b, b>c and c>a, apples over cranberries, cranberries over bananas, but bananas over apples.