The Rational Choice Theory
The etymological origin of the word ‘rational’ can be traced back to the late 14th century from the Latin word rationalis which means ‘of belonging to reason or reasonable’. Rationality became the key component in the analysis of human nature and its relation with the society in the following centuries. There were several interpretations of the idea of ‘rationality’ by theorists like Weber and Parsons who said that human action involved both rational and non-rational elements. In the late 20th century, the debates on rationality entered the field of political analysis. Rational choice theory became one of the most dominant approaches of political science. Moving away from the focus on history and culture, rational choice theory focused on the …show more content…
Rationality, according to the theory, means a property of patterns of choices. The basic premise of the modeling under rational choice theory is that individual choices are driven by rationality which means each individual chooses the best action in accordance with his preferences and within the constraints presented by the situation. Given that individuals cannot opt for all the choices presented to them, they are required to make choices which can help them achieve their goals and or at least the means thereof. Therefore the rational choice theory holds that individuals must anticipate the outcomes of alternative courses of action and calculate that which will be best for them. Rational individuals choose the alternative that is likely to give them the greatest …show more content…
The model of individual rationality plays an important role in public policy formulation. Given that rational choice theory propagates the individuals making rational decision, public policy based on rational choice is operated through instruments like incentives and sanctions on the assumption that preferences are determined exogenously and that individual will change its behavior according to its calculation of profit. The policy instruments provide the criticism for the theory
Marrisa Alexander Case Essay
905 Words | 4 PagesA crime that recently happened was the Marrisa Alexander case. A mother of 3 sentence to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband. Can we use rational choice theory to state that Marrisa Alexander, was a delinquent who committed this crime with all understanding of the law and knowledge of penalty? Physical and verbal abuse can blur the line for a victim that rational thinking may sometimes become and irrational. We will review if Ms. Alexander case, to better understand was this crime committed by a criminal or someone under duress, was rationality used during this incident, and was all preventive measures taken to prevent this crime or was this a case where the law provided no justice for the victim.
Ronald Turptin's Rational Choice Theory
982 Words | 4 PagesRobert J. Hoshowsky wrote The Last to Die which summarizes the lives of Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas, who were the last two people to die due to capital punishment in Canada. Certain situations in Ronald Turpin’s life led him to commit a crime resulting in the use of capital punishment. Looking into his criminal lifestyle, the rational choice theory can explain some of the actions he felt he had to take and his role in society. Also, using the social learning theory can explain where he learned these behaviours from. Using these theory helps to explain Ronald’s criminal lifestyle and help people understand why he did what he did, although there are a few theories that can relate to Ronald’s lifestyle.
Rationality In The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
1528 Words | 7 PagesThe Importance of Rationality At often times one may believe that making decisions should be predominantly based upon what one may feel or desire, though in reality such process frequently results in negative consequences, thus why in the process of making decisions, love should not overtake rationality. When love is prioritized in decision making, it tends to cause thoughts that typically won’t better the situation for those who are involved, while rationality would instead provide the proper reasoning to create a suitable outcome. In the process of making decisions, love should not overtake rationality.
Ridgewood High School Rationality
590 Words | 3 PagesHello Village of Ridgewood Council Members. We are from Dr. Bernardo’s philosophy honors class at Ridgewood High School and are here to discuss the issue of rationality that has been affecting this town for the past few years. People have not been acting in a way that would be considered rational and so we have put together guidelines for people of the town to follow in order to live their lives more rationally. Rationality is acting according to the truth, so our presentation has a focus on getting people to act according to the truth.
Texas Constitution Research Paper
1743 Words | 7 PagesRational behavior is not easy to achieve but it is possible. According to Charles Elder and Roger Cobb, “Rationality implies that political actions and evaluations are the product of consistent preferences, logical analysis, and abundant [unbiased] information. Irrationality, on the other hand presupposes that political actions and reactions are based on emotional impulses and blind prejudices that defy logic and that are insensitive to fact.” Elder and Cobb both compared the understanding of rational behavior and irrational behavior. Human beings are basically non-rational people.
Rationalism In Rudolf Otto's The Idea Of The Holy
1021 Words | 5 PagesOverall, the rational is but an attempt to define the undefinable. To understand Otto’s rejection of the rational, the rational must be understood. “Rational,” in The Idea of the Holy, refers to the conceptualization of religion and the divine itself. Otto’s basic definition of the rational stems from the establishment and application of concepts evidenced in “they can be grasped by the intellect; they can be analyzed by thought; they even admit of definition. An object that can thus be thought conceptually may be termed rational” (Otto, 1).
The Rational Actor Model
1088 Words | 5 PagesAccording to Allison and Zelikow admit the deviancy saying “characterization of the rational actor’s choice in a world of uncertainty about estimated consequences of options requires further information or assumptions about the actors’ attitude toward risk.” Allison justifies the model saying people must use the Rational Actor Paradigm. It uses a “systematic statement of the basic assumptions, concepts, and propositions employed in the basic school of analysis”. In our example, the only known objective was to agree upon that a decision of some kind had to be made. The options on the table were increase law enforcement, create exclusion zones, mass deportation, internment, extermination, propaganda, encourage loyalty, full scale evacuation or simply do nothing.
Robert Agnew's Strain Theory In Scarace
1000 Words | 4 PagesRational choice theory also stipulates that all complex social phenomena are driven by individual human actions. It focuses on the choice to engage in crime. We must keep in mind bounded rationality in order to understand Rationality is constrained by the limits of time and ability and the availability of relevant information (Cullen, 2014 pg 439). You can easily link Rational Choice theory to the film Scarface. In this film Tony Montana (Al Pacino) calculates the pleasure and benefits he can obtain if he becomes a cocaine distributer.
Realism Vs. Liberalism In International Relations
902 Words | 4 PagesThe first great-war shattered the human mind so profound that out of its aftermaths’ emerged a fresh discipline (in 1919 at the University of Whales known to us as International Relations) proposed to prevent war. “It was deemed by the scholars that the study of International Politics shall find the root cause of the worlds political problems and put forward solutions to help politicians solve them” (Baylis 2014:03). International Relations happened to play the role of a ‘correcting-mechanism’ restoring the world order of peace and amity by efforting at its best to maintain the worlds’ status quo. However with the emergence of a second world war much more massive that the first put at stake all the values of that young discipline of IR. The
Rational Choice Theory: Why Do People Commit Crimes
912 Words | 4 PagesWhy do people commit crimes? What goes through their minds before they actually commit a crime? These are questions asked from society to criminologist every time one decides they want to commit a crime. Criminologists has given us different crime causations, theories, to explain the answer to these questions. A theory is a speculation about how phenomena, behavior, or process are caused and what takes place after the cause is determined (Anderson, 2015).
Pros And Cons Of Decision Making Model
789 Words | 4 PagesThere are four major decision-making models- rational, bounded rationality, incremental and garbage can models. In the following, pros and cons of each model will be discussed and explain why Incremental and Garbage Can Models can best describe the decision made during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Rational model is a cognitive process, which the decision-makers run through rational steps. The steps refer to definition of problems, identification and evaluation of alternative policies, implementation of the best policies among all and finally monitoring of effects, ran through a unitary decision-maker (Taylor, 1998). Theoretically, the model can search for the best solution to the problem based on the comprehensive consideration.
Similarities Between Karl Marx And Emile Durkheim
1084 Words | 5 PagesHe was the founder of rationalization. He believed that rationalization was a central problem in this world and the power of ideas shapes and changes society. Members of preindustrial societies embrace tradition. To him Industrial societies describe by rationality. Rationalization is historical changes from tradition to rationality as the main type of human thought (societies differ in how people think of world).
The Pros And Cons Of Irrational Decision Making
2131 Words | 9 PagesSo most of the people know what is a rational choice but still act irrationally and make poor financial decision. So now the real question is why human beings do this. The main reason is that most of us are lazy or do not have time to think thru the ups and downs of a decision. So why shouldn’t people make irrational decisions. It is because most of the time making irrational decision might make people worse of than
Public Policy Analysis
741 Words | 3 PagesAnderson (2003), there are several implications of this concept of public policy. It refers to a purposive course of action undertaken by a government in dealing with certain problems or matters of concern. Firstly, public policies are purposive or goal-oriented actions rather than random behaviours or chance occurrences. Secondly, they can be courses or patterns of measures taken over time by governmental authorities rather than separate and distinct decisions. Thirdly, they are in response to policy demands and involve other actors, such as individuals, groups of citizens, groups of representatives, or legislators and other public officials, in action or inaction on certain public issues.
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