and costs is referred to as an individual’s utility function, and Buchanan and Tullock
(, ) argued that individuals will act to maximize that utility by choosing
“more rather than less” of their preferences. () Only individuals, not
collectives, make decisions. This is known as methodological individualism, and
it presumes that collective decisions are aggregations of individual choices, not a
unique property of the group. In laying down the foundations of rational choice
theory, Buchanan and Tullock clearly stated the importance of methodological
individualism to their project: “We start from the presumption that only the individual
chooses, and that rational behavior . . . can only be discussed meaningfully
in terms of individual action” ().
From these simple premises, rational choice scholars have deductively constructed
entire theories of individual and organizational behavior, and extended
the implications deep into the administrative arrangements of government and
the intellectual development of public administration. Indeed, it is difficult to underestimate
the impact of rational choice on the applied and scholarly sides of
public administration. This impact has been felt in three primary areas. () Organizational
behavior. Rational choice theory offers a comprehensive framework
to answer the question of why bureaucracies and bureaucrats do what they do.
() Public service delivery. Rational choice theory offers an explanation of how
public goods are produced and consumed, and from these insights favors a series
of public-sector reforms that turn traditional public administration presumptions
and prescriptions on their heads. () A claim for a new theoretical orthodoxy. Advocates
of rational choice theory have argued that it is the natural successor to the
Wilsonian/Weberian ideas that have dominated a century’s worth of intellectual
development in rational choice. Rational choice, some suggest, is not just a positive
theory (an explanation of how the world does work), but also a normative
theory (an explanation of how the world should work). As a normative theory, rational
choice has been argued to be a way to fuse the economic theory formulated
by Smith and the democratic theory formulated by James Madison and Alexander
Hamilton. It thus has staked a claim to meet the challenges of Dwight Waldo and
John Gaus, public administration scholars who argued the discipline could move
forward only when administrative theory developed into political theory.
Yet despite the grandiose claims of early rational choice scholars, recent decades
have seen a plethora of essays, articles, and books challenging the basic assumptions
of rational choice theory. The basic premise behind this movement is that
the individual acting as a self-interested utility maximizer is not easily defined in
terms of costs and benefits. Rather, there are sharp deviations from what would
be considered utility-maximizing behavior. Emerging research indicates utility
maximization includes some sense of fairness where literally less may be preferred
to more (Smith ). At the very least, this new group of scholars argues that
 
and costs is referred to as an individual’s utility function, and Buchanan and Tullock
(, ) argued that individuals will act to maximize that utility by choosing
“more rather than less” of their preferences. () Only individuals, not
collectives, make decisions. This is known as methodological individualism, and
it presumes that collective decisions are aggregations of individual choices, not a
unique property of the group. In laying down the foundations of rational choice
theory, Buchanan and Tullock clearly stated the importance of methodological
individualism to their project: “We start from the presumption that only the individual
chooses, and that rational behavior . . . can only be discussed meaningfully
in terms of individual action” ().
From these simple premises, rational choice scholars have deductively constructed
entire theories of individual and organizational behavior, and extended
the implications deep into the administrative arrangements of government and
the intellectual development of public administration. Indeed, it is difficult to underestimate
the impact of rational choice on the applied and scholarly sides of
public administration. This impact has been felt in three primary areas. () Organizational
behavior. Rational choice theory offers a comprehensive framework
to answer the question of why bureaucracies and bureaucrats do what they do.
() Public service delivery. Rational choice theory offers an explanation of how
public goods are produced and consumed, and from these insights favors a series
of public-sector reforms that turn traditional public administration presumptions
and prescriptions on their heads. () A claim for a new theoretical orthodoxy. Advocates
of rational choice theory have argued that it is the natural successor to the
Wilsonian/Weberian ideas that have dominated a century’s worth of intellectual
development in rational choice. Rational choice, some suggest, is not just a positive
theory (an explanation of how the world does work), but also a normative
theory (an explanation of how the world should work). As a normative theory, rational
choice has been argued to be a way to fuse the economic theory formulated
by Smith and the democratic theory formulated by James Madison and Alexander
Hamilton. It thus has staked a claim to meet the challenges of Dwight Waldo and
John Gaus, public administration scholars who argued the discipline could move
forward only when administrative theory developed into political theory.
Yet despite the grandiose claims of early rational choice scholars, recent decades
have seen a plethora of essays, articles, and books challenging the basic assumptions
of rational choice theory. The basic premise behind this movement is that
the individual acting as a self-interested utility maximizer is not easily defined in
terms of costs and benefits. Rather, there are sharp deviations from what would
be considered utility-maximizing behavior. Emerging research indicates utility
maximization includes some sense of fairness where literally less may be preferred
to more (Smith ). At the very least, this new group of scholars argues that
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