<論説>政治行動の経済学的分析について : 理論化の試みを中心に

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This paper is concerned with two theoretical orientations in economic analysis of political behavior, rational choice approach and pilitical exchange approach, which are drawing attention in the contemporary American political science. The fundamental characteristic of these two approaches is an orientation toward the construction of political theories on the model of economic theories. It is often said that economics has been severely challenged or has been already theoretically bankrupted. However, we believe it is still recognized its reputation as an advanced level of theoretical progress in social sciences. Needless to say, political scientists themselves have continuously made great efforts to construct scientific political theories since ancient times. Nevertheless, nobody can deny that political scientists have never succeeded in building a theoretical system comparable to economic theories yet. Considering the closeness and overlap of both economic and political activities in society, we can say economic analysis of political behavior is an ambitious attempt for scientific theory construction in politics. In this paper, at first, I try to learn the purpose and methodology of both rational choice and political exchange approaches from the works by two brilliant scholars, John Harsanyi and Sidney Waldman. The former discusses the purpose and methodology of rational choice approach in his 1969 article, while the latter insistsd on the usefulness and possibility of political exchange approach in 1972. Then, I examine a systemist's criticism to economic analyses in detail, for systems analysis has been strongly attacked by economic analysts including the above two. Here, I pay attention to David Easton's counterargument. Easton, a well-known theorist and strategist of systems analysis, defends his standpoint, pointing out the narrow perspective and the ignorance of structure in economic analysis. According to him, his basic standpoint is methodolofical holism. In conclusion, I discuss the methodological characteristics of economic analysis and the relation between economic analysis and systems analysis. As for the methodological characteristic of economic analysis, both rational choice and political exchange approaches intend to construct a formal deductive theory, emphasize an analysis of social change, insist on an application of economic tools and models, advocate methodological individualism, and stand on the utility maximization hypothesis of human behavior. However, I must recognize that these two are not identical at all. The basic difference between them is that the former has an intention of normative theory construction, while the latter concentrates on a descriptive theory construction. In this connection, the latter is strongly influenced by operant conditional psychology. On the other hand, rational choice approach has little interest in psychological theories. In addition, the former's hypotheses have axiomatic nature, while the latter's are empirical generalizations. Although Ronald Rogowski strongly criticizes systems analysis, we do not agree with him; I think there are common goals and strategies between systems analysis and economic analysis, in spite of some methodological difference. For example, both intend to build a formal deductive theory and apply mathematical tools to analysis of politics. Besides, basic ideas of politics are not so different. David Easton already defined politics as "authoritative allocation of values" in early 1950s. Fundamentally, economic analysis use this definition of politics. Furthermore, there are many concepts and terms commonly used in both areas. For example, "exchange" is the key word in both analyses. Thus, both analyses do not exclude one another in terms of construction of scientific political theory. Or rather, both have to cooperate with one another in order to pursue the goal.
1976-12-15

著者

森脇俊雅
関西学院大学法学部

<論説>政治行動の経済学的分析について : 理論化の試みを中心に

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