Rational Actor Theory in Politics: A Critical Review of John Quiggin

Geoffrey Brennan and Jonathan Pincus

The Economic Record, 1987, vol. 63, issue 1, 22-32

Abstract: John Quiggin's paper attacks public‐choice theory. among other things, for its us? of the assumption of ‘rational egoism’. The object of our response is twofold. First. to distinguish egoism from rationality, and to indicate that rationality postulates, when faithfully applied, provide reasons for believing that political behaviour and market behaviour will be systematically different, and specifically that the former will be less egoistic than the latter. Second, to indicate that comparative static propasitions in public‐choice theory (and in economics more generally) can be sustained on rather weaker behavioural assumptions than homo economicus embodies, and that consequently some of the public‐choice orthodoxy would survive any attack on the egoism assumption.

Date: 1987
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