The New Institutionalism and Rational Choice Theory

Abstract

Compares the assumptions of new institutionalism & rational choice theory. New institutionalists assume that: institutions are based on constitutive & regulatory rules that carry meaning for & determine the actions of a particular population; agreement about the appropriateness of the rules is usually exogenous; rules are typically taken for granted; actors enact rather than act; & the persistence of institutions cannot be deduced from observations about individual motives. Rational choice theorists assume that: individuals are the sole source of purposive motor energy; individual actions are optimally chosen in relation to beliefs about the outcomes of actions; preferences are transitive over actions; & affects range over an actor's welfare/interests only. Thus, the key points of contention between new institutionalists & rational choice theorists appear to be about neither the nature of institutions nor their ubiquity, but about how their genesis & persistence are to be explained. M. Maguire