Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice LiberalismIn Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy, S. M. Amadae tells the remarkable story of how rational choice theory rose from obscurity to become the intellectual bulwark of capitalist democracy. Amadae roots Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy in the turbulent post-World War II era, showing how rational choice theory grew out of the RAND Corporation's efforts to develop a "science" of military and policy decisionmaking. But while the first generation of rational choice theorists—William Riker, Kenneth Arrow, and James Buchanan—were committed to constructing a "scientific" approach to social science research, they were also deeply committed to defending American democracy from its Marxist critics. Amadae reveals not only how the ideological battles of the Cold War shaped their ideas but also how those ideas may today be undermining the very notion of individual liberty they were created to defend. |
Contents
Managing the National Security State Decision Technologies and Policy Science | 27 |
Kenneth J Arrows Social Choice and Individual Values | 83 |
James M Buchanan and Gordon Tullocks Public Choice Theory | 133 |
William H Rikers Positive Political Theory | 156 |
Rational Choice and Capitalist Democracy | 176 |
Adam Smiths System of Natural Liberty | 193 |
Rational Mechanics Marginalist Economics and Rational Choice | 220 |
Consolidating Rational Choice Liberalism 19702000 | 251 |
From the Panopticon to the Prisoners Dilemma | 291 |
Notes | 297 |
| 347 | |
| 381 | |
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achieve Adam Smith Air Force argues Arrow's impossibility theorem Arrow's Social Choice Arrow's theorem axioms behavior Buchanan and Tullock budget Calculus of Consent Cambridge University Press Choice and Individual Cold collective action Committee concept decisionmaking defense democratic discussion Dobb Economic Theory economists Ford Foundation function game theory goals Harsanyi Hayek Ibid Individual Values intellectual James Jevons John Journal Kenneth Arrow liberty logical marginalist marginalist economics Marxism mathematical maximization McNamara military moral nomics normative Olson outcomes Pareto philosophy policy analysis Political Economy political science positive political theory PPBS principle Prisoner's dilemma problem public choice theory RAND RAND's rational action rational choice liberalism rational choice theory rational self-interest Rawls Rawls's reason Review Riker Schumpeter scientific self-interested rational social choice theory social science social welfare socialist society Soviet strategic systems analysis theorists Theory of Justice tion tional choice tradition utility vidual voting welfare economics
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Page 17 - And we define: the democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote.
Page 19 - The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonvealth is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which, though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society, are, however, of such a nature, that the prof,t could never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, and which it, therefore, cannot be expected that any individual or small number of individuals should erect or maintain.