Is rational choice theory all of social science? / Mark I. Lichbach.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-311) and index.

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Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part I. Foils and Stories -- 1. Three Approaches to Foils -- 1.1. Rational Choice Theory and Its Foils -- 1.2. Social Scientific Theories and Their Foils -- 1.3. Foils in the Academy -- 1.4. My Hope for This Book -- 2. Three Types of Stories -- 2.1. Deep Stories -- 2.2. Exemplar Theorists -- 2.3. Ideal Types -- 2.4. The Rational Reconstruction of Research Programs -- 2.5. The Trouble with Stories: Thin and Thick Research Communities -- 2.6. Typologies and Genealogies -- Part II. The Rationalist Challenge -- 3. Rational/Social Choice Theory -- 3.1. Thin and Thick Rationalists -- 3.2. Rationalist Ontology -- 3.3. Rationalist Methodology -- 4. Rationalism and Hegemony -- 4.1. Why Rationalist Social Science Tends toward Hegemony -- 4.2. The Result: Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Conciliation -- 4.3. Countertendencies: How Rationalist Social Science Defines Its Baselines and Boundaries -- 4.4. Countertendencies: Why Rationalist Social Science Lowers Its Positivistic Pretensions -- 4.5. Modest Rational Choice Theory -- Part III. The Alternatives to Rationalist Hegemony -- 5. Cultural/Interpretive Theory -- 5.1. Thin and Thick Culturalists -- 5.2. Culturalist Ontology -- 5.3. Culturalist Methodology -- 5.4. Culturalist Lacunae -- 6. Structural/Institutional Theory -- 6.1. Thin and Thick Structuralists -- 6.2. Structuralist Ontology -- 6.3. Structuralist Methodology -- 6.4. Structuralist Lacunae -- Part IV. The Debate about the Debate -- 7. The Need for Synthesis: Structure and Action -- 7.1. For Synthesis -- 7.2. Types of Syntheses -- 7.3. Structure/Institution and Action/Process -- 7.4. Methodological Synthesis: The Causal and the Interpretive -- 7.5. The Importance of Synthesis -- 8. The Need for Analysis: Models and Foils -- 8.1. For Models and Foils -- 8.2. Against Synthesis.

8.3. Conclusion: Synthesis and Analysis -- Part V. The Philosophy of Science -- 9. The General and the Particular -- 9.1. The Research Programs -- 9.2. Weber's Approach -- 9.3. The General and the Particular in the Social Sciences -- 10. Models and Foils: A Modest Philosophy of Science for Social Science -- 10.1. Theory -- 10.2. Evidence -- 10.3. Theory and Evidence -- 10.4. Evaluation -- 10.5. How a Modest Rationalist Evaluates Theory and Evidence -- Notes -- References -- Index.

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Annotation Advocates of rational choice theory in political science have been perceived by their critics as attempting to establish an intellectual hegemony in contemporary social science, to the detriment of alternative methods of research. The debate has gained a nonacademic audience, hitting the pages of the New York Times and the New Republic. In the academy, the antagonists have expressed their views in books, journal articles, and at professional conferences. Mark I. Lichbach addresses the question of the place of rational choice theory in the social sciences in general and in political science in particular. He presents a typology of the antagonists as either rationalist, culturalist, or structuralist and offers an insightful examination of the debate. He reveals that the rationalist bid for hegemony and synthesis is rooted in the weaknesses, not the strengths, of rationalist thought. He concludes that the various theoretical camps are unlikely to accept the claimed superiority of the rationalist approach but that this opposition is of value in itself to the social sciences, which requires multiple perspectives to remain healthy. With its penetrating examination of the assumptions and basic arguments of each of the sides to this debate, this book cuts through the partisan rhetoric and provides an essential roadmap for the future of the discipline. Mark I. Lichbach is Professor of Government and Politics, University of Maryland.

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