Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg May 14, 2016

On Some Problems to Apply the Economic Model of Behaviour in Political Science

  • Gebhard Kirchgässner
From the journal Analyse & Kritik

Abstract

After a short description of the economic model of behaviour it is shown that there are two reasons why problems arise if this model is applied to political processes and decisions. First, such decisions are often ‘low cost’, i.e. ‘wrong’ decisions have hardly any impact on the decision maker. Second, the behaviour of single individuals or small groups of individuals is to be explained. The common root of this problem is the difficulty to predict behaviour which is mainly preference governed and not guided by (changing) restrictions. Nevertheless, this should not lead to abolish the economic model because (i) it can be usefully applied also in this area and (ii) a better alternative is hardly available.

Published Online: 2016-05-14
Published in Print: 2008-11-01

© 2008 by Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart

Downloaded on 15.5.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/auk-2008-0216/html
Scroll to top button