The rationalist approach takes a good deal of criticism for relying
so heavily on efficiency to solve its key normative challenge. In particular,
the use of efficiency—as opposed to more democratic values such as
equity—serves as the core of a number of post-positivist criticisms. Yet
using efficiency as the basis for judging policy alternatives, i.e., as the normative
basis for operationalizing the rationalist approach, is not done
without justification. In doing so, rationalist analysis draws heavily from
welfare economics, a framework that has a well-laid argument for using
efficiency as the basis for deciding what is best.