This is the first comprehensive critical evaluation of the use of rational choice explanations in political science. Writing in an accessible and nontechnical style, Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro assess rational choice theory where it is reputed to be most successful: the study of collective action, the behavior of political parties and politicians, and such phenomena as voting cycles and Prisoner's Dilemmas. In their hard-hitting critique, Green and Shapiro demonstrate that the much-heralded achievements of rational choice theory are in fact deeply suspect and that fundamental rethinking is needed if rational choice theorists are to contribute to the understanding of politics. Green and Shapiro show that empirical tests of rational choice theories are marred by a series of methodological defects. These defects flow from the characteristic rational choice impulse to defend universal theories of politics. As a result, many tests are so poorly conducted as to be irrelevant to evaluating rational choice models. Tests that are properly conducted either tend to undermine rational choice theories or to lend support for propositions that are banal. Green and Shapiro offer numerous suggestions as to how rational choice propositions might be reformulated as parts of testable hypotheses for the study of politics. In a final chapter they anticipate and respond to a variety of rational choice counterarguments, thereby initiating a dialogue that is bound to continue for some time.

Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science

Politics & Social Sciences

Shapiro, Ian

Green, Donald P.

Philosophy

Yale University Press

Democracy and justice are often mutually antagonistic ideas, yet in this innovative book Ian Shapiro explains how and why they should be pursued together. Justice must be pursued by democratic means if it is to garner legitimacy in the modern world, and democracy must be justice-promoting if it is to sustain allegiance over time. Shapiro spells out the implications of this argument for pressing debates about authority over children, marriage, basic income guarantees, population control, governing the workplace, health insurance, and social policy toward the elderly.

Democratic Justice (The Institution for Social and Policy St)

Shapiro discusses the different answers that have been proposed by the major political theorists in the utilitarian, Marxist, and social contract traditions over the past four centuries. Showing how these political philosophies have all been decisively shaped by the core values of the Enlightenment, he demonstrates that each one contains useful insights that survive their failures as comprehensive doctrines and that should inform our thinking about political legitimacy. Shapiro then turns to the democratic tradition. Exploring the main arguments for and against democracy from Plato’s time until our own, he argues that democracy offers the best resources for realizing the Enlightenment’s promise and managing its internal tensions. As such, democracy supplies the most attractive available basis for political legitimacy.

The Moral Foundations of Politics

Ian Shapiro investigates this political dilemma, evaluating answers that have been proposed in the utilitarian, Marxist, social contract, anti-Enlightenment, and democratic traditions. In The Moral Foundations of Politics, Shapiro reaffirms his place as one of the very clearest and most resolute, and most solidly grounded, practitioners in the political theory field in this generation.”Adolph Reed, Jr., New School for Social Research Blending sophisticated political science (including insightful rational choice calculations) with clarity that makes the book’s subject accessible to neophytes, Professor Shapiro distills centuries of political theory into a slender volume.”Harvard Law Review A deeply valuable book at many levels. Shapiro shows an almost unique ability to combine the broad sweep with the telling detail or precise insight--just what a book of this sort needs.”Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University

The Moral Foundations of Politics (The Yale ISPS Series)

Democracy and justice are often mutually antagonistic ideas, but in this innovative book Ian Shapiro shows how and why they should be pursued together. Justice must be sought democratically if it is to garner legitimacy in the modern world, he claims, and democracy must be justice-promoting if it is to sustain allegiance over time. Democratic Justice meets these criteria, offering an attractive vision of a practical path to a better future. Wherever power is exercised in human affairs, Shapiro argues, the lack of democracy will be experienced as injustice. The challenge is to democratize social relations so as to diminish injustice, but to do this in ways that are compatible with people’s values and goals. Shapiro shows how this can be done in different phases of the human life cycle, from childhood through the adult worlds of work and domestic life, retirement, old age, and approaching death. He spells out the implications for pressing debates about authority over children, the law of marriage and divorce, population control, governing the firm, basic income guarantees, health insurance, retirement policies, and decisions made by and for the infirm elderly. This refreshing encounter between political philosophy and practical politics will interest all those who aspire to bequeath a more just world to our children than the one we have inherited.

Democratic Justice (The Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University)

When do governments merit our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? Ian Shapiro explores this most enduring of political dilemmas in this innovative and engaging book. Building on his highly popular Yale courses, Professor Shapiro evaluates the main contending accounts of the sources of political legitimacy. Starting with theorists of the Enlightenment, he examines the arguments put forward by utilitarians, Marxists, and theorists of the social contract. Next he turns to the anti-Enlightenment tradition that stretches from Edmund Burke to contemporary post-modernists. In the last part of the book Shapiro examines partisans and critics of democracy from Plato’s time until our own. He concludes with an assessment of democracy’s strengths and limitations as the font of political legitimacy. The book offers a lucid and accessible introduction to urgent ongoing conversations about the sources of political allegiance.

The Moral Foundations of Politics (The Open Yale Courses Series)

Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself

How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics Democracies across the world are adopting reforms to bring politics closer to the people. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates. Ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly. Many democracies now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones. Yet voters keep getting angrier. There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem, not the solution. Efforts to decentralize political decision‑making make governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long‑term interests. To revive confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.

Rosenbluth, Frances McCall

Politics & Government

How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics\nDemocracies across the world are adopting reforms to bring politics closer to the people. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates. Ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly. Many democracies now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones. Yet voters keep getting angrier. There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem, not the solution. Efforts to decentralize political decision‑making make governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long‑term interests. To revive confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.

Uncommon Sense

UNCOMMON SENSE

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shapiro, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shapiro, Ian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shapiro, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science

Democratic Justice (The Institution for Social and Policy St)

The Moral Foundations of Politics

The Moral Foundations of Politics (The Yale ISPS Series)

Democratic Justice (The Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University)

The Moral Foundations of Politics (The Open Yale Courses Series)

Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself

Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself

UNCOMMON SENSE

Uncommon Sense