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Rational choice theory (RCT) is a social-scientific approach that explains social phenomena in terms of deliberate decisions that self-interested individuals make.

One of the key assumptions of RCT is the notion of the purposeful actor. Rational choice theorists portray social actors as distinct entities with knowledge of alternative courses of action available to them, as well as their possible consequences. These actors are conceived to have given preferences (i.e., wants, goals) organized in a hierarchical order. Between two alternatives, say, A and B, the actor either prefers A to B, or B to A, or remains indifferent. In their actions, social agents have the immediate purpose of attaining ends consistent with their preferences. In other words, the actions of social agents are intentional and reflect actors' preferences.

Utility maximization, another key assumption, relates closely to the idea of the purposeful actor. Actors' preferences represent a utility function that assigns a numerical value to each possible alternative facing the actor or decision maker. The assumption of utility maximization holds that an actor's choices or decisions attempt to maximize this mathematical function.

An important part of the choice process is the existence of constraints. In attempting to achieve their goals, social agents often act on the basis of the information that they have within specific institutional settings. This information and setting limit the feasible set of available actions. At its simplest, the relationship between preferences and constraints is that of a means to an end. Since individuals cannot achieve everything that they want, they must make choices in relation to both their preferences and the available means for attaining them.

The assumption of rationality follows from these axioms. When rational choice theorists speak of rational behavior, they mean that individual actors consider their preferences vis-a-vis the constraints they face and attempt to optimize their utility functions.

RCT provides several benefits to researchers. Although variations occur in particular empirical applications, RCT provides scholars with a unifying, general theory. The investigators clearly know the elements of the theory, and how they should carry out the analysis. This explains why RCT, long a dominant paradigm in economics, has become popular in recent decades in such disciplines as political science and sociology.

However, for other scholars, RCT presents some serious problems. Critics find its behavioral assumptions to be highly unrealistic. Assuming that individuals are primarily utility maximizers, they argue, neglects the possibility of other goals directing social agents. Rather than maximizing something, people often engage in habitual, value-oriented, or affectual action. Instrumental rationality thus cannot give a complete account of social action.

Critics also contend that the rational choice approach suppresses most real-world complexities by leaving out anything that it cannot model. Scholars whose approaches are inductive and empirical are particularly critical of this reduction of social phenomena to an outcome of agents' self-interested actions. Such analysis, they maintain, omits much of the rich historical, contextual detail that they meticulously assemble. Another stream of criticism attacks the notion of preferences. While rational choice theorists contend that social agents act with the purpose of reaching ends that are consistent with their preferences, this does not explain why actors have those preferences in the first place.

Bibliography:

1) Elster, Jon, ed. 1986. Rational Choice. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

2) Friedman, Jeffrey, ed. 1996. The Rational Choice Controversy: Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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